


%<s 









-J.-' , *-L.^->t*.^;, 






-#»;' .^ 't 






\' <$:. 



.s''^^ 



A 










A" 
0' 







c 



0' c. ° 



,v 



<? 



-? 



^7. 















'^^ 



A-" 



c^' ^^M5^^ ^ ^' .>vl, 






,^..i^. ^,^^- :gmi 



<p 



^. 



-,> ,-s- 



• ■^ vJ^ 



^ >^>'^V^^* <=v 



^li 



^ ^:^i3^ 



■^^ 







-3- 



r .^:^^^^^ 



■^^ 



%> 









^^^ 






.V 



^-T". 



c 









o 



,0- 







■ » , 1 " jvO ,J>^ ♦ o , o ' ^^^ 



A' 









/\ 



^ 



\^^ 



■ ':' •J^, 



Xi 



1-^ 



<Jy^ 



<^. 









:^^,M 



'^0' 



^ i-^-v. -^...Z ~*>iife:- V„.' .c^ 






^oV^ 



•^ ^^aiiS^. ^^ ^^^il^' .^^. \Hi2^; ^^ -.^ 






_ ArVx'jr 



,Hq 



<<< 















'^_ • » - ^ ^<C> 



-P 






,-tV . 












^►^-^-^ 



' .^0 






v^-^. 

vV "^^ 






0' o"" ^. '^o, ^^ 



y ' V.' '* ■?■ V - ' • °- C 






,0- 



.,V^ ^^■f.'^*-."' '^ 



•<"<l^ 

s^'"-. 






■ • — - -.' < o 



.T^ „ _ -^ aV '^^. >. ^ -J- aV 









'^^0^ 



_t^:.^-0L 



:T^ 



-o V^ 



^m \s^ ^l^v %.v^- {4m^ %:.^ /^^^ 



^^ =^.S^i^ -<-^ 






^ '«^;//'-> 



05 * ^'Y'lA 



V 






0^ .-• 






\' 






0' 






■oK 









-oV^ 



^■^" 



•^ 



•i> ' o R 






-^^ 









3.0 -r, ,-; A o^ 



O 



A" 



mi 



\ NAT * 



& 



.-J^' 



^ 









i-^- 



,-v 



V 






/ 

JOHN CALL DALTON 

M.D., U.S.V. 



Privately Printed 
1892 



^^7;.' '< 



Copyright, 1S92, 
Bv CHARLES H. DALTON. 

All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, A/ass., U. S. A. 
Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company. 



These passes are the beginning of 
a narrative of the personal mili- 
tary experience of John Call Dal- 
ton, M. D.. Surgeon U. S. V., 
written during the last year of 
his life, at the request of his fam- 
ily, and now prutted for the in- 
struction of its yomzger genera- 
tion. 
March, i8g2. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 5 

THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 35 

THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 64 

MILITARY HISTORY OF JOHN CALL DALTON, M. D. 103 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE 
SEVENTH. 

ON the evening of Saturday, April 13th, 
1861, the intelligence reached New- 
York that Fort Sumter, in Charleston har- 
bor, had yielded to the rebel authorities, 
after undergoing a bombardment of thirty- 
six hours. It was felt by all that this act of 
violence closed the door of reconciliation, 
and dissipated every hope of a peaceful 
solution for our political difficulties. Two 
days afterward President Lincoln issued his 
proclamation calling upon the states for 
seventy-five thousand troops to reassert the 
authority of the government, to "cause the 
laws to be duly executed," and to " repos- 
sess the forts, places, and property " which 
had been seized from the Union. The first 
object of importance was to secure the safety 
of the national capital; and the President 
had expressed a desire that one regiment 
from New York, already organized and 

5 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

equipped, should be sent forward at once 
for that purpose. 

Learning that the Seventh regiment had 
volunteered to meet this call, and that the 
assistant surgeon then attached to it had re- 
signed the position, I applied to be taken in 
his place, and had the gratification to re- 
ceive my appointment on Thursday the 
1 8th. The regiment was under orders to 
assemble and start for Washington on the 
following day. 

Meanwhile other states had also been 
exerting themselves to forward any militia 
regiments that could be had at short notice ; 
and, as usual, when called upon to act, Mas- 
sachusetts was the first in the field. Within 
three days after the President's proclamation, 
two regiments from that state, the Sixth and 
the Eighth, were on the move. The Sixth 
arrived in New York early on the morning 
of April i8th, by the N. Y. & New Haven 
railroad. The terminus of this road was 
then at Fourth Avenue and 27th Street, 
where I saw the regiment disembark and 
form in line, before proceeding on its march 
through the city. Its ranks had evidently 
been filled in some measure by new recruits, 
whose outfit by no means corresponded 
6 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

altogether with the regimental uniform. 
There were common overcoats and slouched 
hats mingled with the rest. But they were 
a solid and serviceable looking battalion; 
and it was a common remark that in such 
an emergency it was a good thing to see the 
men in line with their muskets before their 
uniforms were ready. This regiment was 
followed by the Eighth Massachusetts, 
which passed through the city twenty-four 
hours later. 

But at that time every one bound for 
Washington was too busy with his own 
affairs to pay much attention to the move- 
ments of others ; and the morning of the 
19th was filled to the last moment with 
indispensable preparations. Early in the 
afternoon the Seventh regiment assembled 
at its armory, which was then on the east 
side of Third Avenue, between Sixth and 
Seventh Streets. It had received within the 
past i^vf days some accessions in new re- 
cruits. Its regular members reported for 
duty in greater numbers than usual ; and 
when finally ready for departure it paraded 
nearly a thousand muskets. From the 
armory it was marched by companies to 
Lafayette Place near by, where the line was 

7 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

formed and I took my place with the offi- 
cers of the regimental staff. 

Up to this time our attention had not been 
especially attracted to anything beyond our 
own immediate duties; and for a novice like 
myself they were occupation enough. There 
had been visiting friends and leave-takers 
at the armory, and in the adjoining streets 
there was the usual crowd of idlers and 
sight -seers about a militia parade. But 
when the regiment wheeled into column, 
and from the quiet enclosure of Lafayette 
Place passed into Broadway, the spectacle 
that met us was a revelation. From the 
curbstone to the top story, every building 
was packed with a dense mass of humanity. 
Men, women, and children covered the side- 
walks, and occupied every window and bal- 
cony on both sides, as far as the eye could 
reach. The mass was alive all over with 
waving flags and handkerchiefs, and the 
cheers that came from it, right and left, 
filled the air with a mingled chorus of tenor 
and treble and falsetto voices. It was a 
sudden and surprising demonstration, as un- 
looked for as the transformation scene in a 
theatre. But that was hardly the beginning 
of it. Instead of spending itself in a short 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

outburst of welcome, it ran along with the 
head of the column, was taken up at every 
step by those in front, and only died away 
in the rear. As the regiment moved on 
past one street after another, it seemed as if 
at every block the crowd grew denser and 
the uproar more incessant. Along the en- 
tire line of march, from Lafayette Place to 
Cortlandt Street, there was not a rod of space 
that was not thronged with spectators ; and 
all the while the same continuous cry, from 
innumerable throats, kept up without a mo- 
ment's intermission, from beginning to end. 

No one could witness such a scene with- 
out being impressed by it. It was like the 
act of a drama magnified in its proportions 
a hundred fold, and with the added differ- 
ence of being a reality. The longer it con- 
tinued, the more it affected the senses and 
the mind; until at last one almost felt as if 
he were marching in a dream, half dazed by 
the endless repetition of unaccustomed sights 
and sounds. 

Beside that, it gave us a different idea of 
the city of New York, For most of us, 
especially those of the younger generation, 
it was mainly a city of immigration, offering 
to all comers its varied opportunities for 
9 



IN IVASHIKGrOX WITH THE SEVENTH 

activity and enterprise. Hardly any one 
gave a thought to its local traditions, or 
believed in the existence of any unity of 
sentiment among its inhabitants. But now, 
all at once, it had risen up like an enormous 
family, with a single impulse of spontaneous 
enthusiasm, to declare that it valued loyalty 
and patriotism more than commerce or 
manufactures. The time and the occasion 
had brought out its latent qualities, and had 
given them an expression that no one could 
misunderstand. 

When we turned from Broadway into 
Cortlandt Street the tumult partly subsided ; 
but after crossing the ferry to Jersey City it 
began again. There were demonstrative 
crowds in the railroad depot, and as the 
train moved off they followed it with cheers 
that were repeated at every station on the 
route to Philadelphia. It did not take long 
to discover that transportation by railroad 
train, with a regiment of troops on board, 
was by no means a luxurious mode of trav- 
eling. With no seats to spare, many stand- 
ing in the aisles, and the remaining space 
encumbered with arms and accoutrements, 
there was little opportunity for ease or com- 
fort; and as for sleep, that was out of the 

lO 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

question. Sometime after midnight we 
reached Philadelphia, and were transferred 
to the cars for Washington, at the depot of 
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore 
railroad. But here our onward movement 
ceased. The train rested stationary in the 
depot. Expecting every moment the signal 
for starting, we could only wait patiently 
until it should come. Nevertheless the 
night wore away, the gray dawn found us 
still waiting, and no locomotive had even 
been coupled on to the train. What could 
be the cause of such delay, when everything 
demanded promptitude and celerity"? We 
already knew that the Sixth Massachusetts, 
the pioneer regiment in advance, had been 
attacked the day before in the streets of 
Baltimore, and had only forced its way 
through the mob at the expense of fighting 
and bloodshed. Was our own march to be 
obstructed at the outset by a rebellious city, 
standing like a fortress across the route *? 
Or were the railroad officials in sympathy 
with secession, and purposely hampering our 
movements by pretended friendship and 
false excuses'? The Eighth Massachusetts, 
which had left New York some hours 
before us, was also in the depot, on board 
II 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

another train, equally helpless with our- 
selves, and apparently with as little prospect 
of getting away. As daylight came, we 
began to straggle out of the car-house and 
up and down the streets of what was then 
a rather desolate looking neighborhood. 
The necessity of foraging for breakfast gave 
us for a while some little diversion and 
occupation ; but that was soon over, and all 
the forenoon our uneasiness was on the in- 
crease. Who could tell what might be 
happening even then at the national capital? 
And thus far we had barely accomplished 
one third of the distance from New York 
to Washington. There were interviews 
and consultations between the field officers 
and the railroad authorities; and General 
Benjamin F. Butler, who was in command 
of both Massachusetts regiments, also ap- 
peared upon the scene. But for the rest of 
us there was little food for thought beyond 
rumors, doubts, and surmises. So we kept 
on rambling to and fro near the depot, and 
wondering when this thing would come to 
an end. 

Toward noon some information began to 
filter through from headquarters, and we came 
to understand, more or less distinctly, what 

12 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

was going on. In reality the state of affairs 
was this. The railroad managers were as 
anxious as ourselves to facilitate the trans- 
portation of the regiment ; but they had no 
means of overcoming the difficulties of the 
situation. The tracks through Baltimore 
had been obstructed with barricades, so that 
the cars could not pass. Even if these 
should be cleared away, there was no cer- 
tainty that the company could retain control 
of the depots and rolling stock on the other 
side of the city. That would depend on 
the cooperation of the police and perhaps of 
the city militia, neither of which were felt 
to be reliable. In fact, the Governor of 
Maryland and the Mayor of Baltimore had 
both sent despatches strongly objecting to 
the further passage of troops through the 
city in its present excited and disorderly 
condition. Between the Maryland state 
line and Baltimore there were two railroad 
bridges, crossing the Little Gunpowder and 
Bush rivers; and both these bridges had 
been destroyed by secessionists during the 
night. To repair them would need the 
protection of an armed force, and would be 
a matter of further uncertainty and delay. 
The object of the regiment was to reach 

13 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

Washington at the earliest possible moment; 
and for that purpose the route by Baltimore 
was evidently impracticable. 

The next accessible point was Annapolis 
on the Chesapeake Bay, where the grounds 
of the United States Naval Academy, located 
at the harbor, offered an additional advan- 
tage. It could be reached by either of two 
ways. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and 
Baltimore railroad runs direct from Phila- 
delphia to the mouth of the Susquehanna 
river, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, where 
at that time there was no bridge, the cars 
being taken across on a steam ferry-boat, 
the Maryland^ from one side to the other. 
The troops might be carried by rail to this 
point ; and then, taking possession of the 
ferry-boat, might go down the bay, past the 
harbor of Baltimore, to Annapolis. This 
was the route selected by General Butler 
for the Eighth Massachusetts. Our com- 
manding officer, on the other hand. Colonel 
Lefferts, decided to charter at once a steamer 
capable of taking the regiment from Phila- 
delphia round by sea to the capes of Vir- 
ginia, and so up Chesapeake Bay to Annap- 
olis. 

This was accordingly done. The regi- 
14 



IN WASHING TO.V WITH THE SEVENTH 

ment was paraded, marched down to the 
pier, and embarked on the Boston^ a freight 
and passenger steamer formerly running 
between Philadelphia and New York. 
Her capacity was just sufficient to receive 
so large a company with the necessary 
supplies ; and when all were on board there 
was hardly more freedom of space than we 
had found in the railroad cars. But no 
more time was lost in waiting. That after- 
noon carried us down the river ; by sunset 
we had entered Delaware Bay; and the 
next morning, which was Sunday, the 2 1st, 
we were fairly at sea, headed south for the 
capes of Virginia. 

All that day we ploughed on over a 
smooth sea, with a fair wind, a bright sun 
and a clear sky. The scene everywhere 
was exhilarating; and the interest of the 
expedition increased every hour with the 
uncertainty of what lay before us. We 
were approaching a region where all was on 
the border line between loyalty and seces- 
sion, and which included the most impor- 
tant military and naval positions in the 
country, — Hampton Roads, Fortress Mon- 
roe, and the Norfolk Navy Yard. Intelli- 
gence from these points was eagerly looked 
15 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

for, and early in the afternoon, when near- 
ing the capes, we came within haiHng dis- 
tance of a schooner bound north under full 
sail. The information she gave us was that 
of the destruction of Norfolk Navy Yard 
and its abandonment by the United States 
authorities. This had been done the day 
before by order of the navy department, to 
prevent the ships and ordnance falling into 
the hands of the rebels. It was the best 
thing to do in the emergency. All the 
ships left there had been scuttled, the guns 
spiked and the buildings burned; and the 
enemy in possession could not have made 
anything serviceable for aggressive purposes 
under at least a month. But we were ig- 
norant of these details. We learned only 
that the navy yard was lost; and for any- 
thing we knew to the contrary, Hampton 
Roads might already be patrolled by rebel 
gun-boats, and even Fortress Monroe might 
have shared the fate of the navy yard. In 
that case, it would be no place for an un- 
armed transport, loaded with troops. As 
we entered Chesapeake Bay and passed by 
the suspicious locality, many eyes were 
turned in that direction; and when fairly 
out of reach of Hampton Roads, all felt 
i6 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

relieved that our way to Annapolis was 
once more clear. 

That night our course lay up the Chesa- 
peake, and at dawn on the 22d we were 
anchored in the harbor of Annapolis. But 
to the impatient and inexperienced volun- 
teers it seemed as though the complications 
of our journey were to have no end. Gen- 
eral Butler had arrived the day before from 
the head of the bay with the Eighth Massa- 
chusetts regiment, on the steamer Maryland ; 
and he had rendered good service in saving 
the United States school ship Constitution 
from a threatened rebel attack by towing her 
out from shore toward the harbor entrance. 
But in doing so his own steamer had 
grounded on a shallow bar, where she was 
now lying hard and fast, with the Massa- 
chusetts troops still on board. The first 
thing to do was to release her, if possible, 
from this awkward predicament. Our ves- 
sel, the Boston^ was again put under steam, 
and harnessed with heaving-line and hawser 
to the ferry-boat. Then she would go to 
work like a willing draught-horse, and pull 
this way and that for five minutes together, 
straining every nerve to start her clumsy 
load, but without eff'ect. Her paddles only 

17 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

brought up from the bottom such clouds of 
yellow foam that it made the narrow harbor 
look like an enormous mud-puddle; and 
with every new attempt we began to think 
that instead of floating the Maryland we 
should, in all likelihood, get stuck fast our- 
selves. Finally, much to our relief, it was 
decided to land the regiment and stores from 
the Boston^ and wait for another tide to 
liberate the Maryland. 

So, in the afternoon the regiment landed 
and occupied the grounds of the Naval 
Academy. There we found that many of the 
officers and cadets had left for their southern 
homes, to side with the rebellion. Even 
some of those who remained were by no 
means encouraging in their words or man- 
ner ; they were impregnated with the doc- 
trine of state sovereignty, as something 
equal or superior to that of the nation, and 
they had an exaggerated idea of the num- 
bers and audacity of the insurgents who 
would occupy all roads and dispute every 
mile of our advance. One of them told me 
that he hoped that we would not attempt it; 
and declared that if we did so, not half the 
regiment would reach Washington alive. 
I shall never forget the disgust that rose in 
i8 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

my throat, at hearing a man with the uni- 
form of the United States on his shoulders 
offer a welcome like that to volunteers who 
were trying to save the government that 
employed him. 

The Governor of Maryland, who was 
then at Annapolis, also protested against 
any forward movement of the troops, and 
even against their landing. But these offi- 
cial fulminations had no longer any weight. 
It was only the physical obstacles in our 
way that were now to be considered. In 
the evening the officers gathered in council 
round a fire on the greensward, and it was 
decided to move forward at once by the 
most practicable route. While this was 
going on. General Butler joined the group 
and was invited to speak with the rest. 
The extraordinary character of this man's 
career from first to last, his many clever 
successes and preposterous failures, and the 
furious denunciations he has received from 
both friends and enemies, make it hard to 
say what place he will finally hold in public 
estimation. But the qualities he displayed 
on that occasion deserve the cordial recogni- 
tion and gratitude of all. When he spoke, 
it was to the purpose. With a practical 

19 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

insight and ready comprehension that took 
in the situation at a glance, he swept away 
in a itvf words the whole pretentious fabric 
of state rights, local supremacy, inviolability 
of the soil, and such like. The capital of 
the nation, he said, was in danger from 
armed rebellion. We were on our way to 
protect it with an armed force. That was 
a state of war; and it created a necessity 
superior to every other claim or considera- 
tion. All ordinary laws and authorities in 
conflict with it must be in abeyance ; and, 
as for himself, he should lead his troops to 
Washington, no matter who or what might 
oppose his passage. More than that, he 
should seize upon any property or means of 
transportation necessary to accomplish the 
object, without regard to governors, mayors, 
or railroad companies. 

I have no doubt that the Seventh regi- 
meet would have carried out its design if 
General Butler had not been there ; but it 
was certain that his intellectual promptitude 
and directness of speech imparted new con- 
fidence to all who heard him. He struck 
the same chord in his written correspondence 
with Governor Hicks. During the day he 
had received from the governor a formal com- 
20 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

munication, protesting against the " landing 
of northern troops on the soil of Maryland;" 
— to which he said in his reply: "These 
are not northern troops, they are a part of 
the whole militia of the United States, obey- 
ing the call of the President." Now that 
the question is settled, it seems plain enough. 
But at that time it was a great satisfaction 
to hear the doctrine of supreme nationality 
proclaimed in the terse and expressive lan- 
guage of General Butler. 

It was intended that the regiment should 
march for Washington by the direct country 
road, a distance of about thirty miles ; and 
.much of the time next day was spent in scour- 
ing the neighborhood for horses, mules, 
and wagons, to serve as ambulances and for 
transporting the baggage and camp equi- 
page. But in the afternoon dispatches were 
received from Washington, directing the 
troops to come, if possible, by the Annapolis 
branch of the Baltimore and Washington 
railroad, in order that this important line of 
communication might be kept open for 
future use. This was a single-track road, 
running twenty miles northwest from Annap- 
olis to its junction with the Baltimore and 
Washington line. The depot at Annapolis 

21 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

was closed and abandoned by the company, 
and the track had been disabled for some 
distance out of town. When General But- 
ler, with two companies of the Eighth 
Massachusetts, broke open the depot, he 
found there a {^v<r passenger and platform 
cars, with only one locomotive; and that 
had been taken to pieces and rendered un- 
serviceable. But the Massachusetts regi- 
ment was largely composed of mechanics, 
who were not only good workmen but en- 
terprising and quick-witted. By a singular 
chance one of them recognized, among the 
fragments of the engine, a piece of machin- 
ery which he had himself Fielped to make; 
and he lost no time, with the aid of his com- 
rades, in putting together again the dis- 
jointed limbs of the locomotive, and making 
it in a i^w hours once more fit for work. 
Others repaired the railroad track in the 
neighborhood, and before dawn on the 24th 
everything was ready for two companies of 
the Seventh to move forward as advance 
guard on the line of march. 

Soon after daylight the whole regiment 
was in motion. The locomotive and a 
couple of platform cars were in front, carry- 
ing a howitzer with its caisson; and one or 
22 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

two passenger and baggage cars served to 
carry baggage and camp equipage, and to 
provide for the transportation of sick or 
wounded. The railroad embankment, which 
was our only route, ran through a narrow 
clearing in the woods, with low hills and 
swampy lands alternating on either side. 
The day was still and warm, and a few of 
the men were prostrated by the unaccus- 
tomed exertion and heat. About noon we 
came up with the advance guard, and from 
that point, after a short halt, all moved on 
together. Missing rails and broken cul- 
verts were a constant impediment to our 
advance; and toward evening we came to 
a deep and wide watercourse, where the long 
trestle bridge had been burned a day or two 
before. But these obstacles only seemed to 
stimulate the volunteers. Heretofore their 
annoyances and disappointments had been 
from causes beyond their control. Now 
that every difficulty was within reach, they 
went at it with a will, and thought of no- 
thing but how to overcome it. The ruined 
bridge hardly delayed them three hours. 
The engineer officer and his men went into 
the woods on each side, where a hundred 
busy hands were soon at work, felling trees and 

23 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

hauling them into place; and before dark 
the stream was spanned by a new bridge of 
rough-hewn timbers that carried the train 
over safely, and our march began again. 

So it went on all through the night. 
The missing rails had often been thrown, 
for better concealment, into some deep pool 
or watercourse near by. But after a little 
experience, that was the very first place 
where they were sought for and generally 
found. If the search proved ineffectual, it 
made little difference at last ; for at every 
siding the extra rails were taken up and 
carried forward on the train, to be used as 
they might be needed further on. So the 
track was made serviceable for ourselves, 
and left in good condition for those who 
were to follow. There was a line of skir- 
mishers in front and one on each flank, to beat 
up the enemy, should he be there lying in 
wait. Once or twice a itvf marauders were 
sighted, tearing up the rails or reconnoi- 
tering our advance; but they all retreated 
promptly, without firing a shot or waiting 
for the head of the column, and none of 
them were even seen by the main body. 
That was all. The desperate resistance we 
were expected to meet with from swarming 
24 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

rebels and armed guerrillas turned out to be 
a sham, When the advance guard about 
daylight occupied the village of Annapolis 
Junction, there was no opposition. The 
regiment took possession of a deserted sta- 
tion, and the railroad communication with 
Washington at last was ours. 

It is remarkable how greatly the presence 
of an armed force conduces to friendly feel- 
ing on the part of the inhabitants. No 
doubt the secessionists hereabout had done 
their best for a few days past to prevent our 
ever arriving at Annapolis Junction. But 
now that we were there, and especially in 
need of a freshly cooked breakfast, there was 
little difficulty in obtaining one for the offi- 
cers' mess. The fatigue and drowsiness 
that had been almost overpowering during 
the night, gave way like magic before the 
refreshmg stimulus of the dawn ; and the 
keen morning air awakened an appetite that 
demanded something better than pork and 
hardbread from the haversack. Among the 
neighboring farmhouses there were some 
quite ready to supply our wants. 

Early in the forenoon a train made its 
appearance from the direction of Washing- 
ton. It had been sent out to meet us, under 

25 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

guard of a detachment of National Rifles, 
a volunteer company of the District of 
Columbia; and we were soon on board and 
under way. The cars were crowded to the 
utmost; but we were now nearing our des- 
tination, and every discomfort seemed a 
trifle. For some distance this side of 
Washington the road was picketed ; and 
before long we began to see at intervals the 
head and shoulders of a National Rifleman, 
with his fresh looking uniform and glittering 
bayonet, peering at us over the bushes as 
the train went by. Finally, about noon, the 
city came in sight. It was Thursday, the 
25'th. We had been six days in getting 
from New York to Washington. They 
had been days of doubt and anxiety, of 
hindrances, delays, and stoppages. Every 
hour was precious, and yet we knew that 
with all possible dispatch we might still be 
too late. And even now, at the outskirts of 
the city, we could hardly help looking to 
see whether the flag of the nation still floated 
over the Capitol. The train rolled into 
the depot, the regiment disembarked, formed 
in column, marched to the White House, 
reported to the President, and our journey 
to Washington was accomplished. 
26 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

There was no doubt about the sense of 
reUef created by our arrival. After nearly 
a week of isolation and peril, Washington 
breathed more freely. The only troops 
there before us were the Sixth Massachu- 
setts, a handful of regulars, and about thirty 
volunteer companies of the District of 
Columbia, mainly recent recruits. The 
Seventh was a full regiment, well disci- 
plined and thoroughly equipped. What 
was of still more consequence, it had opened 
the door of Annapolis and reestablished 
communication with the north. The 
Eighth Massachusetts arrived next day from 
Annapolis Junction ; and within another 
week one more regiment from Massachu- 
setts and four from New York followed by 
the same route. After that, the city of 
Baltimore ceased to be an obstruction, and 
the trains came through from Philadelphia 
as usual. By the middle of May there were 
nearly twenty-five thousand troops gathered 
for the defense of Washington. 

For the first week after our arrival we 
were quartered in the Capitol building; but 
at the end of that time the regiment went 
into camp a mile or so north of the city, 
on Meridian Hill. This was a plateau of 
27 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

about forty acres, admirably adapted for the 
purpose. It was on the direct road to 
Harper's Ferry, where the rebels were in 
possession, and would give security against 
incursions from that quarter. The camp 
was on the east side of the road, where there 
was a fine suburban estate, with a large, 
square-built mansion house and outbuild- 
ings. From the road entrance a well graded 
avenue led up to the house porch, which 
stretched its hospitable covering over the 
carriage way. The house was occupied by 
regimental headquarters and the staff officers. 
In front were green fields and orchards, 
falling away in a gentle slope toward the 
city ; and beyond was the broad Potomac, 
with the Virginia shore and Arlington 
Heights in the distance. In the rear were 
the lines of company tents, and an ample 
parade-ground, where the regiment was re- 
viewed every day or two by the President, 
the Secretary of War, the general command- 
ing, or some other high civil or military 
official, who was usually as much an object 
of inspection to the troops as the troops 
were to him. 

By degrees other camps began to spring 
up round about us. On the opposite side 
28 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

of the road were three regiments of New- 
Jersey volunteers, under General Runyon. 
A field in front of us was the daily exercise 
ground of a mounted battery of the regular 
army; and farther down, on the left, was 
the Twelfth regiment of New York volun- 
teers. The Eleventh New York, under 
Colonel Ellsworth, was in camp below the 
city beyond the navy yard. This regiment 
was affiliated with our own through its sec- 
ond officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Farnham, 
who had been until then a lieutenant in the 
Seventh, and had commanded the skirmish 
line in the march from Annapolis. 

The time was coming when the regiment 
would have something else to do than drill- 
ing and camp duty. Washington was saved 
from the danger that menaced it at the out- 
set; and so long as the troops were there, 
it was secure from a sudden inroad. But it 
had no permanent defenses. The Potomac 
River was the limit of its territory. On the 
opposite shore the rising ground of Arling- 
ton Heights commanded all approaches from 
that direction ; and every day, with a good 
spyglass, we could see the fluttering of a 
secession flag in the little city of Alexandria, 
only six or seven miles away. This was a 
29 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

precarious situation for the seat of govern- 
ment and centre of military operations ; and 
no one was surprised when it made an at- 
tempt to burst its shackles. 

On the 23d of May, at midnight, the regi- 
ment was put in motion and marched down 
through the city, to the neighborhood of the 
Long Bridge. Its departure had been quiet 
and noiseless, as if the expedition were a 
secret to all but the commanding officer. It 
soon appeared, however, from signs that the 
uninitiated are not slow to comprehend, that 
something more was going on than the night 
march of the regiment. The order to halt 
came from other sources to our own com- 
mander. After some delay, a part of the 
New Jersey brigade came up from the rear 
and passed on in advance ; and there was 
riding here and there of officers and messen- 
gers, going and coming in various directions. 
Nevertheless, everything was done in silence. 
Not even the occupants of the neighboring 
houses seemed to be awakened or disturbed ; 
and it gave to the scene a mysterious kind of 
interest to feel that we were on some errand 
that neither friends nor enemies were to 
know of until it was accomplished. 

Again our column was on the march, and 

30 



IN WASHINGTOiV WITH THE SEVENTH 

we soon found ourselves at the entrance of the 
Long Bridge. We passed between the two 
guard-houses, under the black timbers of the 
draw-frame, and over its three quarters of a 
mile of roadway to the Virginia shore. It 
was the first hour of a moonHght night, and 
half a mile farther on, at daybreak, the regi- 
ment was halted and went into bivouac on 
an open field by the roadside. 

Not long after sunrise a horseman came 
clattering along the road from the direc- 
tion of Alexandria, and as he galloped by 
toward the bridge, he flung out to us the 
news, " Alexandria is taken, and Colonel 
Ellsworth is killed." 

This was one of the minor events in the 
early part of the war that excited a wide- 
spread interest, mainly from the dramatic 
features of the incident. The Eleventh New 
York had reached Alexandria by steamer, 
and landed there about daylight. Imme- 
diately after disembarking. Colonel Ells- 
worth had left his regiment, and with a 
small squad hastened to secure the telegraph 
office, to prevent communication with the 
south. That done, he noticed, flying above 
the principal hotel in the town, a secession 
flag. It was the flag we had seen so often 

31 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

for the last fortnight from the direction of 
Washington. The colonel effected an en- 
trance, and with his companions mounted to 
the roof, hauled down the flag, and brought 
it away with him. When about halfsvay 
down he was shot dead by the keeper of the 
hotel, who was lying in wait for him with a 
double-barreled gun. Instantly the soldier 
next him discharged his musket in the face 
of the homicide, and, driving his bayonet 
through his breast, hurled his body down the 
remaining stairway ; so that within a minute 
both the colonel and his assailant were dead 
men. None of those in the hotel knew of 
the arrival of the regiment, and probably 
thought they had to do only with a itw 
raiders from abroad. 

This news of the occupation of Alexan- 
dria was our first intimation of the actual 
extent of the movement we were engaged 
in. The truth was that between midnight 
and dawn about 12,000 men had crossed the 
Potomac by the two bridges at Washington 
and Georgetown, beside the Eleventh regi- 
ment which went by steamer. They were 
to hold and fortify a defensive line extending 
from below Alexandria, around Arlington 
Heights, to the Potomac River above George- 
32 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

town ; comprising, when all complete, a 
chain of twenty-three forts, for the perma- 
nent security of the city on its southern side. 
Our own destination was a locality not far 
from our first bivouac, and where the New 
Jersey troops, who had gone before, were 
already breaking ground for the trenches. 

Next day the men of the Seventh were 
also set to work with pick and spade and 
barrow, excavating the ditch and piling up 
the rampart along the lines laid down by the 
engineers. One fatigue party followed an- 
other, all doing their best, like so many ants 
on an ant-hill ; and before night the place 
began to look something like a fortification. 
When finished it was the largest of those on 
the south side of the river, occupying a space 
of about fourteen acres. It was an inclosed 
bastioned work, covering the two forks of 
the road; one leading south to Alexandria, 
the other southwest toward Fairfax Court 
House. It defended the Long Bridge, and 
secured its possession for ingress and egress. 
It was named Fort Runyon, in honor of the 
general commanding the New Jersey brigade. 

After a few days on the Virginia shore, the 
regiment was ordered back to its camp at 
Meridian Hill. It had been mustered into 

33 



IN WASHINGTON WITH THE SEVENTH 

service for one month, to meet an emergency 
which was now past. Orders for its return 
north were received on the 30th of May; 
and on the 31st it broke camp and embarked 
for New York, arriving there on the 1st of 
June. It was then mustered out of service, 
having been under arms forty-three days. 

This was the " Washington campaign " 
of the Seventh regiment. It was a campaign 
without a battle, and the regiment was not 
once under fire from the enemy. Its only 
casualties were one man killed in camp by 
the accidental discharge of a musket, and an- 
other wounded in the leg by his own pistol. 
But it came to the front at a time when one 
battalion for the moment was more needed 
than a brigade afterward. Though mustered 
out as a regiment, it at once began to supply 
material for other organizations. Of its 
members in 1861, more than six hundred 
entered the service during the war; over 
fifty became regimental commanders; from 
twenty to thirty, brigadier-generals ; and more 
than one reached the grade of major-general. 
With all this depletion, its ranks were kept 
tolerably full by new recruits, and it was 
twice afterward called into the field for tempo- 
rary duty, once in 1862, and again in 1863. 

34 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT 
ROYAL. 

AFTER my return from Washington in 
1861, I resigned my commission in 
the Seventh regiment, and looked for an 
opportunity of more permanent connection 
with the service. 

The most attractive position which offered 
was that of surgeon of brigade, recently es- 
tablished by act of Congress ; and, a medi- 
cal board having been convened for the ex- 
amination of candidates, I appeared before 
it, passed the examination, and in due time 
received my commission as Brigade Surgeon 
of Volunteers. 

At that time each volunteer regiment had 
its surgeon and assistant surgeon, who were 
in general quite competent to the work they 
had to do. Like other regimental officers, 
they received their appointments and com- 
missions from the authorities of their own 
state, and were permanently attached to 

35 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

their particular regiments, without being 
either authorized or required to go else- 
where. 

But when the volunteer army came to be 
organized into brigades, under command of 
brigadier generals with a general staff, it 
was found that there were no medical offi- 
cers to correspond. They were needed to 
receive and consolidate the regimental re- 
ports, inspect the health of the commands, 
establish field hospitals, and perform in every 
way the duties of a general medical officer. 
Such places were filled, so far as possible, 
by the surgeons and assistant surgeons of 
the regular army. But these were too i^-w 
in number to provide for the large volunteer 
force suddenly called into action; and for 
that reason the new grade of brigade sur- 
geon was created. My commission was 
dated August 3, 1861. 

But it was not until the first week in 
October that I received orders to report in 
Washington at army headquarters. On 
arriving there, I was directed to join General 
Viele's brigade and report for duty to that 
officer. 

General Viele's brigade was at Annapolis. 
So, as soon as possible, I proceeded, with 
36 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

my horse, baggage, and camp equipage, to 
Annapolis Junction, and thence, by the 
branch road that I had traveled with the 
Seventh, to Annapolis. There I found the 
general and his staff, quartered in the old 
St. John's College, a little outside the town. 
A locality always looks different when 
you are arriving and when you are going 
away; and, notwithstanding my brief ac- 
quaintance with Annapolis six months be- 
fore, now that I was coming to it from a 
different direction and for another purpose, 
I should hardly have known it for the same 
place. 

The building where we were quartered 
was a plain brick edifice, several stories in 
height, facing the town, with a distant view 
of the harbor beyond. In front was the 
college green, where some of the regiments 
were paraded for the presentation ot flags. 
One of these presentations was made, a week 
after my arrival, by Governor Hicks, who 
had now seen his way clear to support the 
Union. In the rear and to the westward 
were the regimental camps. 

It soon appeared that the troops were 
gathering at Annapolis in considerable force. 
In all, there were three brigades : General 
37 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

Viele's, General Stevens's, and General 
Wright's, — the whole forming a division 
of a little over twelve thousand men, under 
command of General W. T. Sherman. In 
Genefal Viele's brigade there were five regi- 
ments, — the Forty - sixth. Forty - seventh, 
and Forty-eighth New York, the Third 
New Hampshire, and Eighth Maine. This 
brigade was the earliest on the ground and 
ranked first in the division. General Ste- 
vens's was the second brigade, and General 
Wright's the third. Each had a brigade 
surgeon ; and a chief medical officer, from 
the regular army, was attached to the staff 
of the division commander. 

It was also claimed that we were going 
somewhere. Already a number of trans- 
ports were in the bay, and others continued 
to arrive, evidently for our accommodation. 
Orders from the commanding general or his 
adjutant were dated : " Headquarters, Divi- 
sion E. C." These cabalistic letters were 
supposed to indicate in some way our future 
destination, though I do not remember ever 
seeing them, either written or printed, ex- 
cept as initials. After a time they were 
understood to mean Expeditionary Corps; 
but that hardly made us much wiser as to 

38 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

how far or in what direction we were 
bound. 

At the end of a fortnight all was ready. 
One by one the transports came into the 
harbor and took on their load of stores, 
artillery, ammunition, and wagons; and 
finally the troops embarked. Our own ves- 
sel, occupied by General Viele and his staff, 
was the Oriental^ an iron-built ocean steamer 
of nine hundred tons, formerly a packet run- 
ning to Havana. She also carried provi- 
sions and ordnance, and one or two compa- 
nies of soldiers belonging to the brigade. 

After saying good-by to Annapolis, our 
vessels steamed slowly together down the 
broad highway of the Chesapeake, past the 
mouth of the Potomac river, almost as broad, 
and the next day came to anchor in Hamp- 
ton Roads. So far, our voyage was only a 
preliminary. We had arrived at a second 
rendezvous, where the remainder of the 
expedition was in waiting; and we now 
began to have an idea of its real magnitude. 
Grouped around us over the ample road- 
stead, there were war vessels of all grades 
and dimensions, from a steam frigate to a 
gunboat. Whether they were all to go 
with us we knew not, but the number of 

39 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

coaling schooners lying about seemed to 
indicate that most of them were under sail- 
ing orders. 

However, there was more waiting to be 
done before the final start, and we passed a 
week without shifting our anchorage, Not 
being responsible for anything outside our 
own brigade, we devoted ourselves mainly 
to cultivating the virtue of patience. Yet 
we could not help feeling that such a mili- 
tary and naval demonstration, gathered at 
such a point, could not long remain a secret; 
and that, wherever we might be bound, if it 
were any object to arrive without being ex- 
pected, the sooner we could get away the 
better. For medical officers there was an- 
other cause of anxiety, which I began to 
appreciate almost as soon as our anchor was 
down. When soldiers are on land it is al- 
ways possible to care for their sanitary con- 
dition. Camps can be cleansed and drained, 
or shifted to better ground ; and the sick 
can be placed in hospital, or isolated at a re- 
spectable distance from the rest. But how 
to do this with troops confined within the 
narrow quarters of a ship "? And what if 
some contagion should break out among 
them, like smouldering fire in a haystack ? 
40 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

Every exertion was made to keep the trans- 
ports in fair condition as to cleanliness and 
ventilation, and to watch for the appearance 
of any suspicious malady. But every day 
made it more difficult to do the one, and 
added to the danger of the other. Fortu- 
nately, we got through without any serious 
mishap of this kind. 

Meanwhile, we had some entertainment 
in watching our naval colleagues, and trying 
to learn what and who they were. They 
were in frequent communication with each 
other or with the shore ; and their trim 
barges, with the regular dip of their oars, 
and a kind of scientific certainty about the 
way they went through the water, contrasted 
well with the rather sprawly fashion of our 
own boats and their soldier crews. The 
commander of the naval force was Captain 
Dupont. 

His flagship, the JVahash^ a double deck 
steam frigate of forty guns, was the most 
imposing object in view. Then came the 
sloops-of-war Mohican^ Seminole^ and Paw- 
nee^ with gunboats of various sizes, and the 
great transports Atlantic^ Baltic^ and Van- 
derbilt, each of about 3000 tons burden; 
making altogether, with the additional trans- 
41 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

ports and supply boats, a fleet of nearly fifty 
vessels. 

At last the preparations were complete, 
and on Tuesday, October 29th, the signal for 
starting was given. Away from Hampton 
Roads, through the mouth of the Chesapeake, 
past the capes of Virginia, and then at sea, 
with prows toward the south, the stately 
procession moved along, every vessel in its 
place. The flagship led the van, with other 
men-of-war trailing behind, like ripples, in 
two diverging lines. Then came the trans- 
ports in three columns, formed by the three 
brigades, and lastly a i^w gunboats brought 
up the rear. The vessels of the first brigade 
formed the right column, and as the sun 
went down the Virginia shore was just sink- 
ing out of sight. The weather was favor- 
able, and every one felt pleased to see the 
expedition now fairly on its way. 

Our progress was not very rapid. Many 
of the war vessels were slow-going craft, and 
the rest had to accommodate their speed to 
the leisurely rate of five or six knots. We 
were fully twenty-four hours in making Cape 
Hatteras ; and, notwithstanding the bad rep- 
utation of this locality, we found there 
hardly enough wind and sea to be uncom- 
42 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

fortable. The main topic of talk was our 
destination. No one in tlie fleet knew what 
that was except the two commanders, Cap- 
tain Dupont and General Sherman, The 
commanding officer on each vessel brought 
with him sealed orders, which he was not to 
open unless separated from the rest. But all 
were at liberty to guess; and in our discus- 
sions there were three objective points fa- 
vored by the knowing ones ; Bull's Bay on 
the coast of South Carolina, Port Royal en- 
trance about a hundred miles farther down, 
and Fernandina in Florida. As I knew them 
all only as so many names on the map, and 
had no idea why one should be a more de- 
sirable conquest than the other, I listened 
for entertainment, without caring to choose 
between them. Our military family was 
made up of various elements, but all were 
good-natured and companionable, and prom- 
ised to grow still better on acquaintance. 
General Viele was a graduate of West Point, 
and we all looked to him for information in 
regard to military affairs. 

The order of sailing became somewhat 
deranged after a time, though at the end of 
two days we were still in sight of the flag- 
ship, with from thirty to forty others in the 

43 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

horizon. So far, the weather had given us 
no trouble. But on Friday, November 1st, 
it began to be rough. The sky was over- 
cast, the ship rolled and pitched, and the 
wind howled in a way that gave warning of 
worse to come. As the day wore on, there 
was no improvement, and before nightfall 
it was blowing a gale. 

There is a difference between a storm and 
a gale of wind. A storm is disagreeable 
enough, with the driving rain, the lead- 
colored sky, the sea covered with foam, and 
the wet decks all going up and down hill. 
There is not much pleasure while that lasts. 
But in a gale of wind, discomfort is not what 
you think of. After the tempest has grown 
and gathered strength for five or six hours 
together, it begins to look threatening and 
wicked. The sea is a black gulf around the 
ship; and the great waves come rolling at 
her, one after the other, like troops of hungry 
wolves furious to swallow her up. A thou- 
sand more are behind them, and she has to 
fight them all, single handed, for life or 
death. She must keep her head steady to 
the front, and meet every billow as it comes 
without faltering or flinching ; for if she 
loses courage or strength and falls away to 
44 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

leeward, the next big comber will topple 
over her side and she will go under. 

When a good ship is wrestling with such 
a sea, she does it almost like a living crea- 
ture. She sways and settles, and rises and 
twists, and her beams groan and creak with 
the strain that is on them. But her joints 
hold, and she answers her helm ; and the 
steady pulsation of her engines gives assur- 
ance of undiminished vitality and motive 
power. So long as she behaves in this way, 
you know that she is equal to the work. 
But what if the sea should grow yet fiercer 
and heavier, and buffet her with redoubled 
energy till she is maimed or exhausted % 
She is a mechanical construction, knit to- 
gether with bolts and braces ; and the steam 
from her boilers is to her the breath of life. 
However stanch and true, her power of 
resistance is limited. But in the elements 
there is a reserve of force and volume that 
is immeasurable; and when they once begin 
to run riot, no one can tell how severe it may 
become or how long it will last. 

So it was on board the Oriental. All 
that evening the wind increased in violence. 
Every hour it blew harder, and the waves 
came faster and bigger than before. The 

45 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

sea was no longer a highway ; it was a toss- 
ing chaos of hills and valleys, sweeping to- 
ward us from the southeast with the force of 
the tornado, and reeling and plunging about 
us on every side. The ship was acting well, 
and showed no signs of distress thus far; but 
by midnight it seemed as though "she had 
about as much as she could do. The offi- 
cers and crew did their work in steady, sea- 
manlike fashion, and among the soldiers 
there was no panic or bustle. Once in a while 
I would get up out of my berth, to look at the 
ship from the head of the companion way, 
or to go forward between decks and listen 
to the pounding of the sea against her bows. 
At one o'clock, for the first time, things were 
no longer growing worse ; and in another 
hour or two it was certain that the gale had 
reached its height. Then I turned in for 
sleep, wedged myself into the berth with the 
blankets, and made no more inspection tours 
that night. 

Next morning the wind had somewhat 
abated, though the sea was still rolling hard, 
under the impetus of an eighteen hours' 
blow. The ship was uninjured and every- 
thing on board in good condition. But 
where was the fleet ? Of all the splendid 
46 



THE EXPEDITION TO FORT ROYAL 

company that left Hampton Roads four days 
ago, only two or three were in sight, looking 
disconsolate enough and pitching about like 
eggshells. We knew afterward that two of 
them had gone down, one had thrown over- 
board her battery of eight guns to keep from 
foundering, and others had turned back, dis- 
abled, for Fortress Monroe. But on the 
whole, most of them had escaped serious 
damage, and, like ourselves, were again mak- 
ing headway toward the south. Neverthe- 
less it was a lonely day, and at nightfall we 
had no more companions about us than there 
were in the morning. 

By this time we knew our destination. 
The sealed orders were opened and the ship 
put on her course. The next day, Sunday, 
was bright and clear, with a smooth sea. 
Other vessels began to appear, moving in 
the same direction ; and before noon we were 
off Port Royal entrance, with ten or eleven 
ships in company. Stragglers continued to 
come up as the time passed, and on Monday 
morning when the flagship arrived, there 
were already twenty-five or thirty sail around 
her. 

Any land looks pleasant from the sea, 
when you have been knocking about for 

47 



THE EXPEDITIOX TO PORT ROYAL 

some days in bad weather ; and the South 
Carolina shore had a particularly attractive 
appearance for us, partly no doubt because 
we knew it would still be rather hard work 
getting there. It was ten miles away, but 
the mirage made it visible ; and the long 
stretch of beaches and low sand bluffs, with 
their rows of pines, all sleeping in the quiet 
sunshine, had a kind of luxurious, semi-tro- 
pical look, at least to the imagination. Every 
light-house and buoy had been removed, and 
not a sign was left for guidance over the 
bar. But soon a busy little steamer was at 
work, sounding out the channel and placing 
buoys ; and in the afternoon all except the 
deeper-draft vessels went in. We were 
among the first of the lot; and of those that 

followed, many showed the marks of their 

^ ■J 

rough treatment at sea. The big sidewheel 
steamer, M'irifield Scott, came in dismasted, 
and with a great patch of canvas over her 
bows, looking like a man with a broken 
head. Others had lost smoke-stacks, or 
stove bulwarks or wheel-houses. But when 
all that could get over the bar were collected 
inside, they still made a respectable fleet. 
The heavier vessels had to wait for another 
tide. 

48 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

That was early next morning, when the 
Wahash came in, followed by the rest 
A weather-beaten old tar was standing in 
her fore channels outside the bulwarks, feel- 
ing her way with lead and line ; and as the 
great ship moved slowly by, we could hear 
his doleful, monotonous chant, " By the 
ma-ark fi-ive." telling that she was in thirty- 
feet of water and going safely along. She 
passed through the fleet of transports and 
war vessels to her position in advance. 

Meanwhile several gunboats had gone up 
the harbor, to learn something about the 
forts. They were firing away now and then, 
either at the enemy on shore or at the rebel 
gunboats hovering about beyond. We sup- 
posed that their errand was only preliminary, 
and felt no surprise at seeing them return 
after an hour or two and again quietly come 
to anchor. But in the afternoon, when the 
flagship herself got under way, we expected 
something more; especially as she had un- 
dergone a transformation and was now in 
fighting trim. Her topmasts were sent down, 
and all her lofty tracer\- of spars had dis- 
appeared. As she moved off, looking like 
a champion athlete stripped tor the tray, 
every eye follow-ed her in eager expectation. 
49 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

Soon a pufF of smoke from one of the rebel 
batteries, followed by the dull reverberation 
of the report, and then another from the 
opposite shore, spoke out their defiance, as 
if they would like nothing better than to 
begin hostilities at once. But there was no 
answering gun from the frigate. On she 
went, in the same leisurely fashion, as if she 
had seen and heard nothing. More guns 
from the forts, more smoke and more rever- 
beration. Now she will surely open her 
ports and show these blustering rebels, at 
least with a shot or two, what it is to 
fire upon a United States frigate. But no. 
She seemed to pause awhile as if in doubt, 
then turned and came slowly back toward 
the fleet, followed to all appearance by the 
parting scoffs of the enemy. It was im- 
possible to repress a certain feeling of cha- 
grin at seeing the flagship apparently chased 
out of the harbor, on the first trial, without 
even firing once in reply. 

That was because we had been looking 
at something we did not understand. After 
getting the reports of the gunboats, the 
flagship had gone up to obtain for herself a 
itw more particulars as to the location and 
outline of the forts. The cannonading was 

50 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

at too long range to do her any harm, and 
her expedition was meant for business, not 
for show. 

However, the next day must find us ready ; 
and perhaps it would be none too soon. 
We had now been four days, off and on, at 
the harbor entrance ; and by this time all 
South Carolina knew where we were and 
what we had come for. Every additional 
twenty-four hours gave the enemy more 
time for preparation, without any advantage 
to us; and the longer the enterprise was 
deferred, the more difficult it would become. 
But the next day there was rather a hiiih 
wind, with considerable sea ; and accordingly 
matters again remained in statu quo. That 
was another disappointment. It seemed 
almost impossible that it should be so. 
Were these old sea-dogs, after coming six 
hundred miles on purpose, to be delayed in 
their work by a little rough water? 

Well, yes. This was to be a contest 
between ships and forts. The forts are 
planted on the solid ground, and their guns 
are mounted on level platforms, with every 
angle of inclination sure and uniform. But 
the ships are afloat; and if rolling about with 
the sea, and their decks tipping this way and 

51 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

that, their aim must be uncertain and much 
of their metal thrown away. Of course, a 
fort is not to be reduced by firing guns at it, 
but by having the shot penetrate where it is 
meant to go. Captain Dupont was a man 
who had come to win, not to fight a useless 
battle with no result; and the way he went 
to work after the time arrived made it plain 
to all that he knew equally well when to 
stop and when to go ahead. 

On the morning of Thursday, November 
yth, everything was favorable. The sea was 
smooth, with a gentle breeze from the north- 
east. About nine o'clock the war vessels 
began to move forward between the forts. 
The transports were drawn up as near as 
possible and yet be out of the line of fire. 
Our own vessel, the Oriental, was the second 
in position, General Sherman's being the only 
one in advance of us. As for myself, I 
climbed into the fore cross-trees, and then, 
seated on the reefed topsail, with my back 
against the foot of the topmast, I had a view 
that commanded the entire scene. It was a 
bright, clear day, with hardly a cloud on the 
horizon. Before us lay the broad harbor 
nearly two and a half miles across, guarded 
on each side by the enemy's earthworks. 
52 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

On the right, at Bay Point, was Fort Beau- 
regard, and on the left, at Hilton Head. Fort 
Walker, the stronger and more important 
of the two. A little to the north of Fort 
Walker was a high, two-story house, with a 
veranda in front, the headquarters of the 
rebel commander; and away beyond, moving 
about in the adjoining creeks, we could see 
the tall smoke-stacks and black smoke of 
the rebel gunboats, watching an opportunity 
to capture vessels that might be stranded or 
crippled, or to chase them all, should they 
be defeated. 

And now the battle began. The naval 
force in a long line of fifteen ships, passed 
up midway between the forts, receiving and 
answering the fire from each. Near the 
head of the harbor, five or six were thrown 
off for a flanking squadron, to engage the 
rebel gunboats or enfilade the enemy's works 
from the north. The rest, including all the 
larger vessels, then turned south, and, passing 
slowly down in front of Fort Walker, gave 
her, one after the other, their heavy broad- 
sides, turning again, after getting fairly by, 
to repeat the circuit. From my position I 
could see every shell strike. When one of 
them buried itself in the ramparts or plunged 
53 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

over into the fort, its explosion would throw 
up a vertical column of whirling sand high 
in the air, followed by another almost as 
soon as the first had disappeared. When 
one from the rebel batteries burst over the 
ships, it appeared suddenly like a white ball 
of smoke against the sky, that swelled and 
expanded into a cloudy globe, and then 
slowly drifted away to leeward ; while a few 
seconds later came the sharp detonation of 
the exploded shell. On both sides the con^ 
flict was unremitting, and along the whole 
sea-face of the fort its guns kept on belching 
their volleys against the fleet. 

About this time we noticed on our left, 
close in shore, a gunboat that seemed to be 
engaging the fort on its own hook. It was 
a two-masted vessel, probably of six or seven 
hundred tons, but it looked hardly larger 
than a good sized steam tug ; and on its 
open deck was a single big gun, firing away 
at the southeast angle of the fort. It was 
the 'Pocahontas. She had been kept back 
by the gale, and had just arrived in time to 
get over the bar while the fight was going 
on. Her commander was Captain Percival 
Drayton, a native of South Carolina, but one 
of the stanchest and most gallant officers in 
54 



THE EXPEDITION TO TORT ROYAL 

the navy of the United States. The com- 
mander of the two forts was his brother, 
General Drayton, of the Confederate army, 
whose plantation on the island was only two 
or three miles away. 

When looking at the new comer, I could 
not help thinking how much expression 
there may be in such inanimate things as 
two pieces of ordnance. The way the gun 
on the Pocahontas was worked certainly gave 
the idea of skill, determination, and persis- 
tency ; while that which answered it from the 
fort was equally suggestive of vexation, haste, 
and a little apprehension. No doubt it was 
natural for the defenders to feel so, when, in 
addition to the cannonading in front and on 
one flank, another enemy should appear, to 
harass them from the opposite quarter. 

Through all this hurly-burly, the move- 
ment of the war vessels was a masterpiece 
of concerted action. Round and round they 
went, following the flagship in deliberate suc- 
cession, pounding at the fort with one broad- 
side going up and with the other coming 
down„ So far as we could see, not one of 
them fell out of line, or failed to do her full 
share in the engagement. It had been going 
on now nearly four hours. The fire of the 

55 



THE EXPEDITIOX TO FORT ROYAL 

fort was somewhat lessened, but it was still 
enough to be doubtful and dangerous. One 
great gun in particular, on the southern half 
of the sea-front, kept working away with 
dogged energT. as if determined to inflict 
some deadly blow that might retrieve the 
fortunes of the day. After a while there 
seemed to be a cessation. The If abash 
stood motionless before her enemy. She 
fired a single gun, to which there was no 
response. Then a boat shot out from under 
her quarter ; and pulled straight for the 
shore. An officer landed, and went up the 
blufts to the fort. For a moment we could 
see his dark figure running round the par- 
apet, then down and out by the sally-port, 
and across the intervening field to the two- 
story house, where it disappeared in the 
doorway. A few moments later, at the 
flagstafi'on the roof, a flag mounted swiftly 
to the top, and then, in sight of all. the stars 
and stripes floated out with the breeze, over 
the coast of South Carolina. 

What followed was a kind of pande- 
monium. Cheers from the vessels all over 
the harbor, with the tooting of steam whis- 
tles and music from the regimental bands, 
mingled in Ions; reiteration till every vocal 
56 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

organ was exhausted, and the notes of the 
" Star-spangled Banner " had traveled over 
the Bay Point and back again. The trans- 
ports began to move in, and were soon col- 
lected as near the beach as they could safely 
come. In an hour or two I went ashore 
with General Viele and others of his staff, to 
take a look at the surroundings. The fort 
was naturally our first object of interest, 
Three of its guns dismounted, with their 
gun-carriages standing wrong end upward, 
the parapet and traverses seamed with shot 
and shell, and the ground strewn with pieces 
of exploded projectiles, told of the hard 
struggle it had gone through. The few 
dead left by the enemy had been decently 
removed by the marines who first took pos- 
session. A day or two afterward the surgeon 
of the fort was found in one of the galleries, 
dead, and covered with sand from a bursted 
shell. In the rear of the fort was a stretch 
of open plain, also covered with fragments of 
shell, over which the fugitives had passed in 
their final rout, leaving behind arms, knap- 
sacks, blankets, and everything that could 
impede their flight. Traveling over this 
field, half a mile or so from the fort, I came 
upon the body of a stout fellow, who had 

57 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

been struck down while running for his Hfe. 
There was a gaping wound in his breast, 
into which you might have put a quart pot; 
but his countenance was as serene and quiet 
in expression as if he had laid down by him- 
self for a few moments' rest. 

General Wright's brigade was landed that 
afternoon. But it was slow work, with a 
shelving beach and no wharf; and the rest 
of us postponed disembarking till the next 
day. When all were on shore, General 
Wright's command was located at and about 
the fort, and that of General Stevens some 
distance farther on, near the crossing of a 
tide-water creek. Our own brigade, which 
held the advanced position, was about two 
miles northwest of the creeks, on the main 
road from that direction. The fort at Bay 
Point was abandoned by the enemy without 
further resistance, and was occupied by a 
detachment from the second brigade. 

I have understood that this battle made 
some change in current opinion as to the 
efficiency of ships and forts against each 
other. A fort, or at least an earthwork, 
would seem almost impregnable against ar- 
tillery. It has no masonry walls to crumble 
or batter down. Solid shot may bury them- 
58 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

selves in its ramparts without doing the least 
harm ; and when a shell explodes there, it 
only throws up a volcanic eruption of earth 
and sand, that settles back again nearly in 
the same place. The day after the battle at 
Hilton Head, the walls of the fort were 
practically as good as ever, and within a 
week or two its scarred outlines were all 
smoothed over again. On the other hand, 
a frigate or a sloop-of-war is vulnerable 
throughout. A single shot at the water line 
will make a leak, hot shot will set her on 
fire, and exploding shells may derange her 
machinery. Her oaken sides are a slight 
bulwark compared with the twenty feet of 
earth in the ramparts of a fort. 

All this was thoroughly appreciated by 
the enemy, who were prepared for the attack 
and confident of success. Captured letters 
and documents showed that they had entire 
faith in their works and guns, and fully ex- 
pected to sink the Yankee vessels and teach 
them a lesson for their temerity. 

But in one thing ships may be superior to 
forts; that is, in their power of defensive 
action. What decides the day more than 
anything else is the number of guns in ser- 
vice and the rapidity of their fire. Ships may 
59 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

be brought from various directions and con- 
centrated at a given place, so that their 
united batteries will far outweigh the arma- 
ment of a fort. At Hilton Head the Wahash 
alone hred, in four hours, 880 shot and shell ; 
and from the entire fleet no less than 2000 
projectiles must have been hurled upon the 
fort within that time. The earthwork itself 
may withstand this tempest, but its defend- 
ers cannot continue to work their guns. 
After a time their fortitude must give way 
under such a trial, and, as it was in Fort 
Walker, the moment comes at last for a 
final stampede. Of course, this implies that 
the ships are present in sufficient force and 
do their work in the right way. 

But perhaps the victory was due, more 
than anything else, to the practical skill and 
originality of Captain Dupont. He saw at 
once that the work at Hilton Head was the 
important one, and that if that were reduced, 
the other would be untenable. When first 
leading his ships up the harbor in mid-chan- 
nel, he engaged both forts at about two thou- 
sand yards distance. On making the turn 
and coming down again towards the south, 
he passed in front of Fort Walker at eight 
hundred yards. This distance was of his 
60 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

own choosing, and he had the range before- 
hand. But the guns of the fort had to be 
sighted anew, in the heat and excitement of 
actual conflict ; not an easy thing to do, 
even for the most experienced. After going 
again toward the north at longer range, he 
once more made the turn and repassed the 
fort on his way back, this time at six hun- 
dred yards. So, the vessels were always in 
motion, and after every turn presented them- 
selves to the enemy at a different distance. 
It was this second promenade of the ships, 
pouring into the fort their terrific broadsides 
at the short distance of six hundred yards, 
that did the effective work of the engage- 
ment. At this time, according to nearly all 
the commanders' reports, the enemy's shot 
mostly passed over the ships, injuring only 
their spars and rigging. Throughout the 
battle none of them were struck more than 
ten times in the hull, none were seriously 
disabled, and two of them were not hit at all. 
Captain Dupont said afterward that he be- 
lieved he had saved a hundred lives by en- 
gaging the fort at close range. 

After the first rejoicings were over, there 
was a singular feeling of disappointment in 
the North at the seeming want of result from 
6i 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORTROYAL 

the victory at Port Royal. It was expected 
that the troops would move at once into the 
interior, capture the important cities and 
revolutionize the states of Georgia and South 
Carolina. One of the newspaper corre- 
spondents wrote home, a {tw days after the 
battle, "In three weeks we shall be in 
Charleston and Savannah ; " and in the popu- 
lar mind at that time the possession of a city 
seemed more important than anything else 
in the way of military success. So when 
the months of November, December and 
January passed by, without anything bein^ 
done that the public could appreciate, there 
was no little surprise manifested at the in- 
activity of the army in South Carolina 

In reality the military commanders were 
busy from the outset. The day after the 
battle, Captain Gillmore, the chief engineer 
made a reconnaisance to the north side of 
the island, and laid out there a work to con- 
trol the interior water-way between Charles- 
ton and Savannah ; and before the end of 
the month he had commenced his plans for 
the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which in 
due time were brought to a successful issue. 
i5ut these movements, and others like them 
were after all secondary in importance to 
62 



THE EXPEDITION TO PORT ROYAL 

the main object of the Port Royal expedi- 
tion, namely, the permanent acquisition of 
Port Royal itself, as an aid to the naval 
operations on the Atlantic coast. 

The government at Washington was by 
this time fully alive to the magnitude of the 
contest and its requirements. One of the 
most pressing of these requirements was the 
blockade ; which must be maintained effec- 
tively along an extensive line of coast, ex- 
posed to severe weather during a large part 
of the year. The vessels of the blockading 
squadron must be supplied with stores and 
coal at great inconvenience and from a long 
distance ; and when one of them needed re- 
pairs it must be sent all the way to New 
York or Philadelphia to get a new topmast 
or chain cable. This involved much ex- 
pense, long delays, and the risk of temporary 
inefficiency in the blockade. It was impor- 
tant that the fleet should have, near at hand, 
a capacious harbor, where store-houses and 
workshops might be established, and where 
shelter might be had for the necessary inspec- 
tions and repairs. Port Royal was such a 
harbor ; and it also served, in course of time, 
as a base for further military operations. It 
had been selected by Captain Dupont and 
General Sherman in joint council. 
63 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT 
PULASKI. 

THE sea islands of South Carolina and 
Georgia are grouped in a nearly con- 
tinuous chain along the coast, between the 
mainland and the sea. They are flat, with 
only a few slight elevations here and there ; 
and there is not, over their whole area, a 
single boulder, pebble, or gravel bed, nor any 
spot where the ledge rock comes to the sur- 
face. The soil at first seems to be sandy ; 
but you soon discover that it has mingled 
with it a fine black loam and is extremely 
productive. It yields the " sea-island cot- 
ton," a variety of long fibre, formerly much 
valued for certain purposes of textile man- 
ufacture. There is no sod or turf, like that 
of the Northern states, but the fields not 
under cultivation produce a tall thin grass, 
which is soon trampled out of existence by 
passing wagons or by soldiers on the march. 
In the clearings are the live oak and the 
64 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKT 

great magnolia, both evergreen. The pal- 
metto is also a conspicuous object, and the 
dwarf palmetto grows abundantly under the 
shadow of the pine woods. Everywhere there 
is a large proportion of hard-wood shrubs 
and trees with polished, waxy-looking, ever- 
green leaves. 

There are many extensive plantations, 
where the owners often remain during: a 
large part of the year. Their houses are 
not grouped in villages, but scattered at a 
considerable distance apart, each on its own 
plantation, with the negro cabins usually in 
long lines at the rear or on one side. The 
roads from one plantation to another run 
through the pine woods, or over the plains, 
bordered on each side by cotton or corn fields, 
and marking the only division between them. 
There is seldom to be seen such a thing as 
a rail fence, and of course never a stone wall. 

Hilton Head, where we were now en- 
camped, was one of the largest of these is- 
lands. It was twelve miles long, in a gen- 
eral east and west direction, and about five 
miles in extreme width, north and south. At 
its Port Royal end, the sand bluffs rose to the 
height of eight or ten feet above the beach, 
giving the name of " head " more especially 

65 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

to this part of the island ; elsewhere they 
were generally much lower. Along its sea- 
front there was a magnificent beach, ten 
miles long, broken only at one place by a 
creek fordable at half tide. At frequent 
intervals on this route there were marks of 
the slow encroachment of the sea upon the 
land. Often you would come upon the 
white, dry stump of a dead pine, standing 
up high above the beach on the ends of its 
sprawling roots, like so many corpulent 
spider legs. Once it grew on the low bluffs 
above high-water mark, as its descendants 
are doing now. But the sea gradually un- 
dermined its roots and washed out the soil 
from between them, till it gave up the ghost 
for want of nourishment, and in time came 
to be stranded here, half-way down the 
beach. It looked as if the tree had moved 
down from the bluffs toward the water, 
though in reality the beach had moved up 
past the tree. The same thing was g'oing 
on all along the coast in this region. There 
were trees on the very edge of the bluff, 
with their roots toward the sea exposed and 
bare, but with enough still buried in the 
soil on the land side to hold the trunk up- 
right and give it sap ; while here and there 
66 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

was one already losing its grip and slowly 
bending over toward the sea. When it has 
nothing more to rest on than the sands of 
the beach, its branches and trunk decay, but 
its roots and stump remain for many years 
whitening in the sun, like a skeleton on the 
plains. 

The chain of islands from Port Royal 
toward Charleston harbor included Parry, 
Saint Helena, Edisto, John's and James 
islands ; in the opposite direction, toward 
the Savannah river, Daufuskie, Turtle, and 
Jones' islands. Inside these were other 
smaller islands, the whole separated from 
each other and from the mainland by sounds 
and creeks, sometimes broad but oftener 
narrow and tortuous, through which small 
steamers could find an inside passage from 
Charleston to Savannah. This communica- 
tion was of course cut off when our troops 
occupied Port Royal. 

At Hilton Head I first made the acquain- 
tance of the southern plantation negro. 
Every white inhabitant had disappeared, leav- 
ing the slaves alone in possession. Their 
inferior appearance, habits, and qualities, their 
curious lingo and strange pronunciation were 
in amusing contrast with those of the blacks 
67 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

and mulattoes we had seen at the north. 
When I met one of them near the Jones 
plantation and asked him whether he be- 
longed there, his answer was this : " No 
mawse, I no bene blahnx mawse Jones, I 
bene blahnx mawse Elliot." Not having any 
idea what he meant, I repeated the phrase 
to General Viele, who had some familiarity 
with the southern negro, and who gave me 
the interpretation as follows : " No master, 
I did not belong to master Jones, I be- 
longed to master Elliot." Mr. Elliot was 
the owner of another plantation near by. 
Soon after we took possession of Hilton 
Head, negroes began to come in from the 
neighboring islands, seeking shelter and 
food. They generally appeared to rate them- 
selves at the value set upon them by their 
former masters. One morning a young 
black, of the deepest dye and most cheerful 
expression of countenance, presented him- 
self at brigade headquarters, and on being 
asked whether any others had arrived with 
him, he said with a delighted grin: "Yes, 
mawse, more 'n two hundred head o' nig- 
ger come ober las' night." Most of the 
field hands were of this description. But on 
each plantation there was usually one man 
68 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

noticeably superior to the rest in manner and 
language. He was generally the leader in 
their religious exercises, and had the gift 
of the gab to no small degree ; though his 
uncontrollable propensity to the use of long 
words and incongruous expressions often 
gave a ludicrous turn to the effect of his 
eloquence. 

But whatever their grade of capacity or 
intelligence, the negroes agreed in one thing. 
They were well satisfied to live on the plan- 
tations, without control of their former own- 
ers, so long as the crops of the present season 
would supply them with food. Their liber- 
ation they knew was owing to the success 
of the Union troops, and they showed a 
much more intelligent comprehension of the 
causes and probable results of the war than 
they had been supposed to possess. But as 
for doing anything themselves to help it on, 
that did not appear to form part of their 
calculations. They would work for their 
rations when destitute, would obey when 
commanded as they had been accustomed, 
and they would aid the Union cause when- 
ever they could do so in a passive sort of 
way. But we soon found that we must not 
look to them for anything like energetic or 
69 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

spontaneous action. This seemed a strange 
indifference to a contest involving the free- 
dom or servitude of their race, and no doubt 
accounted for much of the aversion after- 
ward felt by our troops to the project of 
transforming some of them into soldiers. 

But if we had remembered where the 
negroes came from, perhaps we should not 
have been so much surprised. Their ances- 
tors had been brought to this country from 
the coast of Africa by slave-traders who had 
bought them there. They were slaves al- 
ready, when they were taken on board ship. 
They had been captured in war, or seized by 
native marauders, who took them for the pur- 
pose of reducing them to slavery and selling 
them for profit. They were consequently 
from the least capable and least enterprising 
of the negro tribes in Africa ; and their de- 
cendants in this country were of the same 
grade. If they could not resist being made 
slaves by other negroes, how could they be 
expected to take part in a war between 
whites, even to recover their own freedom ? 

Of course there were exceptions to this. 

In the month of May following, a boat's 

crew brought away from Charleston harbor 

the barge of the Confederate General Ripley, 

70 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT TULASKI 

and escaped with it to the naval vessels out- 
side ; and not long afterward the negro 
pilot, Robert Smalls, and his companions ran 
the gauntlet of the forts in the night-time 
with the steam-tug Planter^ and delivered 
her safely to the blockading fleet. But these 
were rare instances, and nothing of the kind 
happened at Hilton Head. 

What the sea-island negroes appeared to 
excel in more than anything else was hand- 
ling an oar, which they did in a way quite 
their own. In their long, narrow " dug- 
outs," hollowed from the trunk of a Geor- 
gia pine, each man pulling his oar in unison 
with the rest, they would send the primitive 
craft through the water with no little velo- 
city. In lifting and recovering the oar they 
had a peculiar twist of the hand and elbow 
that no white man could imitate ; and their 
strange sounding boat songs seemed to give 
every moment a fresh impulse to the stroke. 
These songs had no resemblance to the half- 
humorous, half-sentimental " plantation mel- 
odies " known to theatre-goers at the north. 
They were more like religious rhapsodies in 
verse. At least, they had many words and 
phrases of a religious character; but min- 
gled together, in a kind of incoherent chant, 

71 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

with many others of different significance, or 
even none at all. It was not its meaning 
that gave value to the song ; it was its sound 
and cadence. Sometimes the verse would 
open with a few words of extempore varia- 
tion by the leader, and then the other voices 
would strike in with the remaining lines 
as usual. Oftener than not, the song was a 
fugue, every one of the half dozen boatmen 
catching up his part at the right second, 
and chiming in all the louder and lustier 
for having kept still beforehand. Once in a 
while the passenger would be startled at see- 
ing an oarsman suddenly strike the one in 
front of him a smacking blow between the 
shoulders, at the same time injecting into 
the melody a short improvised yell, by way 
of stimulus and encouragement. Altogether, 
I have seldom witnessed a more entertain- 
ing performance than one of these semi-bar- 
barous vocal concerts in a South Carolina 
dug-out. 

Our brigade camp was in a large cotton- 
field lying across the road to the northwest. 
At the' time of our arrival it was covered 
with tall, scraggy bushes, their white balls 
still ungathered ; and for a night or two we 
bivouacked in the deep furrows between 
72 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

them. But they were soon removed and the 
surface quickly trampled down into a service- 
able parade ground, with the regimental 
camps extending along one side. Brigade 
headquarters were in advance of the parade 
ground, opposite the right of the line. At 
one end was the general's tent, fronting 
upon an oblong space, enclosed on its two 
sides by the tents of the staff officers, order- 
lies, and employees. Within the enclosed 
space was a single live-oak, under which we 
gathered in the evening round a fire, to 
smoke our pipes and talk over arrivals, re- 
connoisances, or projected expeditions. 

For some weeks pork and hard-bread 
were an important part of our fare. Our 
private stores from the Oriental were soon 
exhausted, and much of the commissary 
supplies on the transport fleet had been 
lost or damaged on the voyage down. For- 
aging on the plantations did something; 
and the general even secured a cow, which 
he stabled alongside our camp. But she 
was of very unprepossessing appearance. 
Her only fodder was dry cornstalks; and 
the milk she gave, in the opinion of most, 
was worse than none at all. The same ver- 
dict was rendered, after trial, on the native 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

beef. The most successful venture of this 
kind was a young kid, secured in a day's 
tramp, which I butchered and dressed my- 
self, as being the only one of the staff enti- 
tled to rank as sawbones. After a time sup- 
ply ships and sutler schooners reached Port 
Royal, and our days of short commons were 
over. 

But the most gratifying arrival was that 
of our horses. They had been shipped with 
many others, at the starting of the expe- 
dition, on the steamer Belvidere, which 
was among the missing when the fleet re- 
assembled at Port Royal ; and hearing no- 
thing of her, we had given her up for lost. 
In reality she had been very roughly hand- 
led in the gale, and many of the animals cast 
loose, trampled on and thrown overboard ; 
but she had managed to keep afloat and 
make her way back to Fortress Monroe. 
Here, after some delay, the remainder of 
the live stock was reshipped and sent down 
to Port Royal on another steamer. Fortu- 
nately our own horses were among the sur- 
vivors. 

The process of getting them on shore was 
something of a novelty. The ship could 
hardly approach nearer than a quarter of a 

74 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

mile from the beach ; so they had to be 
dumped into the sea and make a landing 
for themselves. The way it was done 
was this. A gangway was opened in the 
ship's bulwarks, on the side away from 
shore ; and a gang-plank with cross cleats 
laid over the deck to the opening. The 
animal was then placed at one end, prepared 
to " walk the plank " like a pirate's prisoner. 
As he would never do this of himself if he 
knew what was coming, he is half persuaded 
into it and half forced. One man starts him 
with a little gentle solicitation by the head- 
stall. At the same time two strong fellows 
clasp hands behind him, just above the hocks, 
and as he steps forward they follow him 
with increasing pressure toward the gang- 
way; so that by the time he comes in sight 
of the awful void beyond, his motion is too 
rapid for effectual resistance and over he 
goes with a final splash. 

Most horses, on coming to the surface, 
after a short reconnoisance make straight for 
the shore, where they are taken in hand by 
men waiting for them. But some lose their 
heads and swim away in the wrong direc- 
tion, so that they must be followed by boats 
and captured or turned back ; and a few 
75 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

will persist in getting upon some marshy 
island or mud flat, wh^re they flounder 
about until rescued with no little trouble 
and difficulty. So we took the precaution, 
for our own horses, to have a boat in wait- 
ing alongside the ship, with a long halter 
shank attached to the head-stall, by which 
they could be guided to a safe landing. 
On first coming up from his involuntary 
plunge bath, the animal's expression is one 
of unbounded astonishment and indignation 
at the outrage ; but he soon follows will- 
ingly in the boat's wake, and, once on shore, 
is quite contented to find himself again in 
friendly hands. 

Every one in a brigade camp thinks his 
own horse the best of the lot. He listens 
kindly to the eulogies of his comrades on 
their respective mounts, but with full per- 
suasion that every one of them would ex- 
change with him if he would allow it. My 
own animal was a bay stallion, hardly more 
than fifteen hands high and slab-sided as a 
ghost ; and the deep hollows over his eye- 
balls proclaimed that his tenth birthday was 
already past. But he had plenty of light- 
ning in his veins, and there must have been 
royal blood in his pedigree, though it was a 
76 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

Stolen one. He would go over broken 
bridges wherever there were timbers enough 
for a foothold; and I have taken him out 
on a flatboat to the middle of a wide creek 
and then walked him up a gang-plank to the 
deck of a steamer without his showing the 
least hesitation. Notwithstanding his slen- 
der build, his power of endurance was ex- 
treme, and the oddities of his disposition 
were an unending source of surprise and en- 
tertainment. 

The next enterprise of the expedition- 
ary corps was the siege of Fort Pulaski, at 
the mouth of the Savannah river. It was 
a formidable casemated work, situated just 
inside the entrance, and guarding the ap- 
proach from below to the city of Savannah. 
It could not be successfully attacked by the 
navy, owing to its size and strength and the 
narrow limits of the river channel giving no 
room for the evolutions of a fleet. The 
only place where land batteries could be 
planted against it was Tybee island, be- 
tween it and the sea, where there were but 
slender facilities for such an operation. 
The island was half sand and half marsh. 
On its sea-front was a shelving beach, backed 
by a low ridge with a itw stunted pines and 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

bushes ; and on the land side there was little 
more than a wide stretch of trembling mo- 
rass, in full view of the fort and commanded 
by its guns. Nevertheless Captain Gillmore 
reported that the thing could be done ; and 
early in December the Forty-sixth regiment 
was detached from our brigade and sent to 
occupy Tybee island. The city of Savan- 
nah was fifteen miles above the fort, on the 
south side of the river. 

The part assigned to General Viele was 
to establish a blockade of the Savannah 
river, between the city and the fort. In the 
month of January we struck, camp at Hil- 
ton Head and moved southwest to the far- 
ther end of Daufuskie, the last of the islands 
in that direction suitable for occupation by 
troops. From Hilton Head in direct line it 
was only fifteen or sixteen miles ; but by the 
circuitous water route through Port Royal 
harbor. Scull creek, Calibogue sound, 
Cooper river, Ramshorn creek, and New 
river, it was nearly twice that distance. In 
its general features the island was similar to 
Hilton Head. Our quarters were on a 
slightly elevated point, overlooking the low- 
lands and waterways toward the Savannah 
river, which was about three miles away. 

78 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

In that whole interval there was absolutely 
nothing to break the uniform level of the 
landscape. It was at Daufuskie and there- 
about that we came to know the singular 
network of land and water communication 
that marks the region. From the knoll in 
front of our headquarters you might see, 
some distance awav, the masts and smoke- 
stack of a gunboat apparently sailing along 
through the meadows. Her spars and per- 
haps her bulwarks might be visible, with 
nothing to be seen around them but a wide 
expanse of grass-covered flats. Go where 
she was, and you would find her in a creek 
hardly wide enough for her to turn in, but 
with ample depth of water and straight ver- 
tical sides of black mud, like an enormous 
ditch. Passing through one of these creeks 
in a row-boat at half tide, with nothing to 
be seen on either hand above the brink, and 
other channels opening into it every half 
mile or so, all looking alike, it would be 
the easiest thing in the world to get lost, 
and almost impossible to find your way 
again without a guide. Steamers of light 
draft and not too great length could pass 
through most of these channels at the proper 
tide. 

79 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

On one occasion, after going down to 
Hilton Head for some business connected 
with the medical department, I took passage 
at my return on the steamer JVinfield ScotU 
carrying one of the regiments destined 
for Daufuskie. She left Hilton Head at 
an early hour, and in the forenoon reached 
the sinuous channels northwest of Calibogue 
sound. She was rather a large vessel to at- 
tempt the passage, but with due care and a 
flood tide the pilot hoped she might get 
through. On coming to a bend in the creek 
she would run her nose against the opposite 
bank, then back a little and try again, turn- 
ing slowly meanwhile, edging round by 
degrees and rubbing the mud off the banks, 
bow and stern, till she was clear of the ob- 
struction and ready to go ahead again. At 
last she came to a turn that looked rather 
easier than the rest, but where there was a 
narrow spit at the bottom running out from 
one side toward the other. In trying to 
pass, the vessel grounded on this spit. It 
was still flood tide, and with vigorous push- 
ing she might get over. So at it she went, 
with all steam on and her paddles doing 
their best. At each new trial she gained a 
little, but it was harder work every time ; 
80 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

and she finally succeeded, at full high water, 
in getting exactly half-way over. Fifteen 
minutes later there was no chance. She 
was stranded, helpless, on the bar, bow and 
stern both sinking slowly with the ebb and 
weighing her down past hope of deliverance. 
In an hour or two her main deck began to 
crack open, and it was all the men could do 
to get a few horses across the widening 
chasm to be landed on the neighboring 
flats. Then we all disembarked and made 
ourselves as comfortable as possible while 
awaiting other means of transportation. 
But the Winficld Scott never left that place 
till she was taken away piecemeal. She 
had weathered the November gale at sea, to 
be wrecked on a sunshiny forenoon in Rams- 
horn creek. 

The troops at Daufuskie were a part of 
the old brigade, together with the Sixth Con- 
necticut, two or three companies of artillery, 
and a detachment of the First New York 
Engineers. The last were extremely use- 
ful, as much of the work to be done was of 
an engineering character. The spot selected 
for the first blockading battery was a part 
of Jones' island called " Venus Point," on 
the north shore of the Savannah river, four 
8i 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

miles above Fort Pulaski. To reach it 
from Daufuskie we had to pass by boats 
through New river and Wright river into 
Mud river, and thence across the marshy- 
surface of Jones' island to Venus Point, a 
distance altogether of nearly five miles. The 
opening from Wright river into Mud river 
was an artificial passage called Wall's Cut, 
excavated some years before to enable steam- 
ers from Charleston by the inside route to 
get into the Savannah river. It had been 
obstructed after the battle of Port Royal by 
an old hulk placed crosswise and secured by 
piles, to prevent the passage of our gunboats. 
A company of the New York Engineers, 
under Major Beard, opened the passage 
again by removing the piles and swinging 
the hulk round lengthwise against the bank, 
where it now lay, a dismal looking object, 
abandoned at last by friend and foe. 

Military operations often seem to be go- 
ing on very slowly, especially to those at a 
distance who are unacquainted with the local 
conditions ; but the work required for an en- 
terprise like the investment of Fort Pulaski, 
as we soon found, cannot be done in a hurry. 
First of all there must be night reconnoi- 
sances by capable and well informed officers, 
82 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

through intricate waterways and over path- 
less islands, to learn the position of the en- 
emy, the obstacles to be encountered, and 
the available points for occupation. After 
that begins the labor of the troops. 
Wharves must be built and roads cleared, 
before the barges and steamers can be used 
to advantage for transportation. Jones' is- 
land, the intended location of the battery, 
was like its neighbors, a marshy flat cov- 
ered with reeds and tall grass. Its surface 
was so treacherous that a pole or a stick 
could be thrust down through its superficial 
layer of tangled roots into a fathomless un- 
derlying quagmire of soft mud. Twice a 
month, at the spring tides, it was flooded 
almost everywhere to the depth of several 
inches ; and at no time would it bear with 
safety a horse, a wagon, or even a loaded 
wheelbarrow. For the transportation of 
anything weighty over its surface to Venus 
Point, it must have an artificial causeway. 

Early in February the troops on Daufus- 
kie were set to work in the pine woods, cut- 
ting down saplings of the proper size, and 
carrying them on their shoulders to a newly 
built wharf on the west side of the island. 
Ten thousand of these poles were thus 

83 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

brought from the woods to the water front, 
there loaded on flatboats and towed round 
to the landing place at Jones' island. There 
they were laid crosswise on the surface, to 
form a corduroy road, about three-quarters 
of a mile in length, to Venus Point. Then 
sandbags were carried over, to make some- 
thing like firm ground for the gun-platforms, 
and a dry spot for the magazine. All the 
work at this place had to be done in the 
night time, as it was in full view of the 
rebel steamers passing every itw days up 
and down the river. 

At last all was ready for taking over the 
armament of the battery. In the afternoon 
I went over the corduroy toward Venus 
Point, and at my return about dusk, two of 
the guns were starting on the same road. It 
looked then as if the officers and men in 
charge would have no easy time of it, but 
their difficulties turned out much greater 
than I supposed. It took all that night and 
the next to get the guns over and put them 
in place. With the carriage wheels guided 
on a double row of planks laid end to end, 
taken up in the rear and laid down in front 
as the procession moved on, the shifting 
tramways were soon covered with the island 
84 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

mud, smooth and slippery as so much muci- 
lage. When a wheel happened to get over 
the edge of its plank, down it would go, 
hub deep, in the soft morass ; and then the 
men must set to work with levers to lift it 
out again, themselves immersed up to their 
knees in the same material. Many of them 
encased their feet and legs in empty sand- 
bags tied at the knee, for protection against 
the all pervading mud. It was an exhaust- 
ing labor, sometimes almost disheartening; 
but perseverance at last prevailed, and on 
the morning of the twelfth the six guns 
were all in position. 

The next day I paid another visit to the 
work at Venus Point to see how it looked. 
It could hardly be called a fort. It was 
only a place where some platforms had been 
laid down and guns mounted, enclosed by 
a low parapet, not so much to repel an en- 
emy as to keep out the tides. Nevertheless 
it was named Fort Vulcan, perhaps because 
it was better fitted for aggression than for 
defense. 

While I was there it happened that the 
rebel steamer came down on her usual trip 
from Savannah to Fort Pulaski, and the bat- 
tery opened on her for the first time. She 

85 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

was an ordinary river steamboat, painted 
white ; and her name, the Ida^ could be 
read with a good glass upon her wheelhouse. 
She evidently suspected something new at 
Venus Point and hugged the farther edge of 
the channel. After some shots had been 
launched at her, the artillery officer in charge 
invited me to try my hand at the game. So 
I sighted one of the guns as well as I could 
guess at her speed and distance, pulled the 
lanyard, and watched the effect of the dis- 
charge with no little interest. It was the 
first time I had ever had the opportunity of 
firing at a steamboat. As might be ex- 
pected, I failed to make a hit. At that dis- 
tance she seemed to be moving very slowly, 
though she was no doubt making the best 
of the time so far as she was able ; and 
while my thirty pound projectile was travel- 
ing across the river, she was going down 
stream fast enough to be quite out of its 
way when it got there. Apparently she es- 
caped all the shots without serious damage, 
for she kept on her course toward Fort Pu- 
laski ; but she did not venture to risk it 
again, and returned to Savannah by a circui- 
tous channel farther south. 

A week later the passage was more effec- 
86 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

tually closed by a second battery established 
on Bird island, opposite Venus Point and 
near the south bank of the river. This was 
the same kind of low-lying flat with the 
other islands in the neighborhood. When 
I made a visit to the work some days after- 
ward, it was at the period of a spring tide, 
and nearly everything beyond the parapet 
was submerged. I was taken to the tent of 
Major Beard, the commanding officer, in a 
row-boat. The plank floor of the tent was 
just above the water level ; but the major 
was lying, high and dry, in a bunk of rough 
boards, smoking his pipe with an air of 
supreme satisfaction. He had been from 
the start most active and efficient in the 
work of establishing the blockade, and he 
now held the advanced position, where it 
hardly looked as if he had ground enough 
to stand on. He was commissioned as field 
officer in the Forty-eighth New York, but 
had been detached for some weeks on spe- 
cial service at Hilton Head and Daufus- 
kie. 

During this time we had at brigade head- 
quarters several officers of the regular army, 
whose acquaintance I greatly enjoyed. 
Captain Gillmore, chief engineer of the 

^1 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

expedition, then about thirty-seven years of 
age, was with us from the first. Cheerful, 
hearty, enterprising, and wholly devoted to 
his work, he was the moving spirit through- 
out. He knew every detail of the engi- 
neering and artillery service, and his know- 
ledge was exact and thorough. It was his 
examination and advice that determined the 
plan for the reduction of Fort Pulaski, and 
he fixed upon the location of all the batteries 
on Tybee island. The river blockade from 
Daufuskie was a part of his scheme, and 
while there he spared no pains or fatigue to 
superintend everything and make sure that 
it was done right. After this was com- 
pleted, he returned to Tybee island, to push 
on the works at that place with the same un- 
remitting persistency. The capture of the 
fort was the occasion of a well deserved ad- 
vancement in rank, and before the close of 
the war he became major-general of volun- 
teers. 

Lieutenant James H. Wilson, topogra- 
phical engineer, and Lieutenant Horace Por- 
ter, ordnance officer, were both busy under 
Captain Gillmore's direction. Neither mud 
and water, nor rain or darkness seemed to 
discourage them ; and they would come in. 



THE SEA ISLAXDS AXD FORT PULASKI 

after a night on Jones' island, wet. weary, and 
famished, but as lively and talkative as ever. 
Wilson was afterward a cavalry general, 
and it was a part of his command that cap- 
tured Jeff Davis in his flight through Geor- 
gia in 1865, the last brilliant exploit of the 
war. Porter also became a general, and 
served on the staff of General Grant through 
the Petersburg campaign. Both were 
transferred to the batteries at Tybee island 
after finishing their work on Daufuskie. 
General Viele's troops remained, to keep up 
the river blockade, and prevent further sup- 
plies reaching Fort Pulaski. 

Our own headquarters had been shifted by 
this time to a dwelling-house on the extreme 
southernmost point of Daufuskie, about a 
mile from the regimental camps. It was a 
spacious well-built mansion, and from a sort 
of open veranda on the roof there was a 
wide prospect, including the mouth of .the 
Savannah river, with Tybee island and Fort 
Pulaski on the opposite shore, a little over 
three miles away. I sometimes went up 
into this crow's nest before sunrise, to watch 
the strange effect of the morning mist. At 
that hour the landscape for miles around 
was often covered bv a low-lving bank of 
89 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

white cloud, with a few clumps of trees or 
small hillocks emerging from it here and 
there like so many scattered islands, and 
everything looking cool and still, without 
a sign of animal life or human habitation. 
Afterward, when the warm sunbeams began 
to touch the surface of this cloudy sea, the 
mists would slowly melt away into vapor, 
and I could see the outlines of the roads 
and fields and inlets and watercourses com- 
ing out, one after another, like the markings 
on a map. On two sides of the house was 
a flower-garden with carefully trimmed beds 
and walks, that had evidently been a favor- 
ite with the owner. Roses and camellias 
were in full bloom there in February and 
March, and many other flowering shrubs 
followed as the season went on. The car- 
dinal grosbeak nested among them almost 
within reach of the windows, and the brown 
thrush and mocking-bird reared their broods 
but a short distance away. 

There was a similar house toward the 
eastern side of the island, which we occu- 
pied for a brigade hospital. After obtaining 
the necessary stores and appliances from 
Hilton Head, it made a very convenient 
and useful establishment. Here we placed 
90 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

all the sick or disabled men, likely to need 
a prolonged treatment ; thus relieving the 
regimental hospitals of all but their tempo- 
rary cases, and giving the chronic invalids a 
better chance for convalescence and recov- 
ery. 

We had a new topic of interest about this 
time in the rebel iron-clad steamer Jtlanta, 
said to be approaching completion at Savan- 
nah. The country had just passed through a 
spasm of terror and relief at the unexpected 
performances of the Merrimac and Monitor 
at Hampton Roads; and after that, every 
one had a realizing sense of the devastation 
an iron-clad might accomplish in case there 
were no Monitor to oppose her. We knew 
that such a vessel was getting ready at Sa- 
vannah ; and for some weeks it appeared 
doubtful whether our control of Venus 
Point and Bird island might not at any mo- 
ment come to a sudden termination. As a 
matter of fact, the Atlanta was getting on 
very slowly, and it was not until some 
weeks after the fall of Fort Pulaski that she 
could be put in condition to move. By 
that time the monitor Weehawken was in 
waiting for her; and on her approaching 
and opening fire, disabled and captured her 

91 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

in fifteen minutes. Nevertheless she was 
the cause ot no little foreboding on Dau- 
fuskie during the months of March and 
April. 

Meanwhile Captain Gillmore was erect- 
ing his batteries on Tybee island along the 
western side of the sand ridge, toward the 
fort. Every night, under the cover of dark- 
ness and silence, his working parties trav- 
ersed a narrow causeway of fascines and 
brushwood to the advanced positions, re- 
turning before daybreak to their camps on 
shore. As the low parapets and bomb- 
proofs gradually rose above the surface, they 
were shielded from view by clumps of 
bushes carefully distributed along the front ; 
and lastly the heavy guns and ammunition 
were transported with the same precautions 
to their destination. After seven weeks of 
this labor, everything was ready. Eleven 
batteries, mounting sixteen mortars and 
twenty guns, were arranged along a sinuous 
line following the edge of the morass. 
From the lookout on our house-top all was 
in full view, Fort Pulaski on the right and 
Tybee island with its concealed batteries on 
the left. At that distance nothing was visi- 
ble to show the preparations on either side ; 
92 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

but the first gun would be seen and heard 
from our position almost as well as on the 
spot. 

Early on the morning of April loth it 
began. A mortar at one of the batteries 
gave the signal, and the rest chimed in, one 
after another, as fast as the gunners could 
get their range. By ten o'clock all were in 
operation, mortars, columbiads, and rifled 
guns throwing their shells at the parapet or 
into the interior of the work, or battering 
its nearest wall, at the rate of four discharges 
per minute. They were answered with 
equal activity by the guns of the fort. This 
kept up all day long; the volumes of white 
smoke rolling out from both sides, and the 
reports, mellowed a little by the distance, 
following each other across the river in 
almost uninterrupted succession till night- 
fall. Then the heavv cannonadinsf was sus- 
pended; but every five minutes a shell from 
one ot the mortar batteries was sent into 
the fort, to keep its defenders uneasy and 
prevent their repairing the damages of the 
day. 

From our point of observation we could 
not tell what effect had been produced thus 
far on the walls or parapets of either side ; 

93 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

but neither the fire of the fort nor that of 
the batteries appeared seriously impaired. 
It seemed Ukely that several days might 
pass before a decisive result, and we waited 
patiently to see what the morrow would 
bring forth. We could not cross directly 
to Tybee island without coming under the 
guns of the fort, and could only get there by 
the circuitous route of Hilton Head, which 
would take far too much time, and would 
not, after all, give us so good a view of both 
sides as we already had. Moreover, a new 
mortar battery was to be established that 
night, from General Viele's command, on an 
island above the fort, to bombard it from the 
rear. 

Next morning the music of the great 
guns began again. Neither side seemed 
disabled or disheartened, and the cannonad- 
ing went on much as it had done the day be- 
fore. But we had our own duties to per- 
form, and however interesting the spectacle 
we could not watch it continuously. Early 
in the afternoon I was at a little distance 
from the house, when I missed all at once 
the sound of the guns. One five minutes 
passed by, and then another, but the silence 
continued. What did it mean ? Were the 

94 



THE SEA /SLAA'DS AiVD FORT PULASKI 

batteries silenced, and the game played out 
and lost? That was hardly likely, because 
then the fort would no doubt become the 
attacking party and keep on worrying the 
batteries till they could be abandoned at 
nightfall. Still this was only a surmise, and 
we knew not what reason there might be 
against it. Hastily regaining our observa- 
tory on the roof^ every available telescope 
was leveled at the parapet of the fort, where 
a white flag was visible in place of the rebel 
ensign. Pulaski had surrendered. 

I do not think any one expected the end 
so soon. The fire of the fort had been 
nearly as vigorous the second day as the 
first. Its means of active defense were evi- 
dently far from exhausted ; and yet it had 
given up the fight, as it were on a sudden, 
while still able to hold its own and perhaps 
tire out the enemy at last. But there was a 
reason for this, which we learned soon after- 
ward on our visit to the place. 

Of course every one was anxious to see 
the captured fort. On the following day 
General Viele with his staff went on board a 
small steamer and started for the trip This 
time we were no longer obliged to take the 
crooked route through Wall's Cut and 

95 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

around Jones' island, but steamed directly 
down into the Savannah river opposite the 
fort. As we approached this frowning 
stronghold that had so long held us at bay, 
its effect was something to be remembered. 
Its massive walls covering five or six acres 
of ground, and its double row of heavy guns, 
seemed well able to repel intruders. For 
nearly three months we had looked at it with 
a mingled feeling of desire and dread. It 
would have been dangerous at any time to 
show ourselves within a mile of it ; and it 
would have been a prison to any who should 
venture within a few hundred yards. Now 
we could tie up at the steamboat landing, 
and walk over the long pathway to its gorge, 
unchallenged by any but our own sentries. 
Inside, it was a strange sight; the parade 
ground was scored with deep trenches to 
receive the falling shells, and the interior 
walls were fenced with great blindages of 
square hewn timbers at an angle of forty- 
five degrees. For the garrison had been at 
work on their side, almost as hard as the 
besiegers. In many places the blindages 
were splintered by shot and shell, and the 
passage-ways beneath obstructed with the 
torn fragments. 

96 



^ THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

The main effect of the cannonading was 
to be seen at the southeast angle of the fort. 
The outer wall was crumbled and ruined to 
such a degree that two of the casemates 
were open at the front and their guns half 
buried in the fallen debris ; and the ditch, 
forty-eight feet wide, was partly filled with 
a confused heap of shattered masonry. 
Here it was that Captain Gillmore had con- 
centrated the fire of his breaching batteries. 
As an army engineer, he was acquainted 
with the construction of Fort Pulaski ; and 
he knew that the powder magazine was lo- 
cated at its northwest angle. This would 
bring it, after the breaching of the opposite 
wall, in the direct line of fire ; and when the 
shells from his rifled guns began to pass 
through the opening and strike the defenses 
of the magazine, no choice was left to the 
garrison but surrender. They found them- 
selves in momentary danger of explosion, 
and wisely lost no time in bringing the con- 
test to an end. 

The siege of Fort Pulaski was a very 
different affair from the battle of Port Royal. 
One was a naval, the other a military vic- 
tory. At Hilton Head the troops could not 
have landed anywhere except under the pro- 

97 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

tection of the navy ; and after the reduction 
of the forts there was no longer any enemy 
to oppose them. At Pulaski the troops 
took possession of Tybee island, which the 
rebel commander had neglected or thought 
it unnecessary to protect, and planted their 
batteries on the only ground from which 
the fort could be attacked. Some valua- 
ble assistance was rendered by the gun- 
boats in patrolling the neighboring sounds 
and inlets, but the main part of the work 
throughout was that of the artillerist and en- 
gineer. 

I do not know why the enemy failed to 
interrupt this work by shelling the narrow 
strip of land, more than a mile in length, over 
which all the material for the batteries had 
to be transported. They must have known 
that something of this kind was the sole 
purpose for which our forces had occupied 
Tybee island; and their elaborate prepara- 
tions for defense inside the fort showed that 
they were fully aware from what direction 
the attack would come. Perhaps after the 
fort was invested from above, they wished 
to economize their ammunition for the final 
struggle. Still one would think that a 
few shells expended while the batteries 
98 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

were in progress would be of more ser- 
vice than an equal number after their com- 
pletion. 

But perhaps the enemy were not very 
well acquainted with Tybee island, and sup- 
posed that our troops could reach the front 
by some other route than the one they were 
really compelled to follow. Notwithstand- 
ing the proximity of the island, it is possible 
that the rebel commander did not know its 
important features for military operations. 
In General Barnard's Report on the Defences 
of Washington in 1861, it appears that at 
that time the engineer corps of the regular 
army had no accurate surveys of the region 
south of the Potomac river opposite the na- 
tional capital ; so that the proper location 
for a number of the defensive works could 
not be fixed upon until after our troops 
were in possession of the ground. He even 
says that many of our engineer officers were 
more familiar with the military topography 
of the neighborhood of Paris than with that 
surrounding the city of Washington. If 
the defenders of Fort Pulaski in 1862 were 
equally ignorant of Tybee island, it might 
account for their apparent inactivity during 
the siege operations. 

99 



THE SEA ISLANDS A AW FORT PULASKI 

Captain Gillmore did not rest satisfied 
with the reduction of Fort Pulaski. He 
made it the means of further information in 
gunnery and military engineering. His rec- 
ords showed the number of shots fired from 
each gun and mortar during the bombard- 
ment, the percentage of those which were 
efi'ective or failed to reach the mark, and the 
depth of penetration of the different kinds 
of projectiles in the walls of the fort ; and 
he compared the results with those given by 
the best military authorities. It was the 
first time that rifled cannon had been used 
in actual warfare against masonry walls ; 
and he found that they could do more ex- 
ecution at longer range and with less weight 
of metal, than any of the older forms of 
artillery. He showed that, with such guns, 
walls of solid brickwork, over seven feet 
thick, could be breached at the distance of 
nearly one mile ; more than twice as far as 
it had ever before been thought practicable. 
Had it not been for his confident and steady 
persistence in this design, it is likely that 
the occupation of Tybee island would have 
been a useless enterprise. 

After the fall of Fort Pulaski the troops 
on Daufuskie island were released for other 

lOO 



THE SEA ISLANDS AND FORT PULASKI 

duty. General Viele was ordered north, 
and became the military governor of Nor- 
folk on its recapture from the enemy early 
in May. Before the end of that month, I 
was again at Hilton Head, acting as medi- 
cal director for the troops at that point. 

[Here the manuscript ends, unfinished.] 

lOI 



After Surgeon Daltons service with the 
Seventh Regiment of Infantry of The 
Natio7ial Guard of the State of New York, 
he was commissioned by President Lincoln, 
August J, 1861, Brigade Surgeon of Vol- 
unteers {afterwards Surgeon United States 
Volunteers) ; served as Surgeon in Chief to 
General Vieles command in South Caro- 
lina ; as Medical Inspector of the Depart- 
ment of the South ; and as Chief Medical 
officer on Morris Island, South Carolina. 

His health became seriously impaired by 
his long continued service i7i the malarial 
regions of the South, so as to incapacitate 
him for duty, and he consequently resigned 
from the Army, March 5, 1864.. 

As soon as his health, never fully restored, 
permitted, he resumed his work as Professor 
of Physiology at the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons of New York ; resigned in 
1883 ; was elected President of the College 
in 1884, and so continued until his death, 
which occurred in New York, February 12, 
188^, at the age of sixty-four years and 
ten days. 



MILITARY HISTORY OF JOHN CALL 
DALTON, M. D. 

LATE SURGEON U. S. VOLS., 

As shown by the records on file in the Office of the 
Surgeon General U. S. Army, War Department, 
Washington, D. C. 

August 3, 1861 : 

Appointed Brigade Surgeon of Volunteers from 
New York. 
September 22, 186 1 : 

Reports from New York as awaiting orders. 
September 23, 186 1 : 

Assigned to General McClellan's command, 
Headquarters Army of Potomac, S. O. 257, 
A. G. O. September 23, i86i. 
September 30, 186 1 : 

Reports awaiting further orders. [Had asked to 
be assigned to General Viele's command.] 
October 8, 1861 : 

Reported at Headquarters, General Viele's 
Brigade, Sherman's Division, Annapolis, Md., 
by orders from A. G. O. to November, 1861. 
December 31, 1861 : 

Is reported at Hilton Head, S. C., with General 
Viele's command. 
January 31, 1862 : 

Is reported sick at Washington, D. C. 
103 



MILITARY HISTORY OF JOHN C. D ALTON 

February to June, 1862 : 

On duty at Dawfuskie, S. C, and in South Car- 
olina with Veile's command. 
July 2, 1862 : 

Transferred from Brigade Surgeon to Surgeon 
U. S. Vols. 
July to August, 1862 : 

Acting Medical Director at Hilton Head, S. C. 
September 8, 1862 : 

To report to Medical Director in New York. 
S. O. 228, War Department, September 8, 
1862. 
September 20, 1862 : 

Reports from Boston, Mass., as being on sick 
leave of absence. 
September 30, 1862 : 

Still sick at Boston, Mass. 
October 18, 1862 : 

Reports to Medical Director at New York city, 
and is assigned to duty as Medical Director 
of Transportation to August, 1863. 
August 26, 1863 : 

Ordered to report to the Department of the 
South by direction of the Medical Director 
Department of the East, New York, August 
26, 1863. 
September 8, 1863 : 

Reports from Morris Island, S. C, that he has 
reported to Medical Director of the Depart- 
ment of the South. 
September 15, 1863 : 

Medical Director C. McDougall, Department of 
the East, requests that Surgeon Dalton be 
returned to that Department as soon as the 
public interest will permit. 
104 



MILITARY HISTORY OF yOHN C. D ALTON 

September 30, 1863 : 

Dr. Dalton reports from Morris Island, S. C, as 
Chief Medical Officer. 
October 10, 1863 : 

Reports that he has been relieved from duty in 
the Department of the South and ordered to 
report to Medical Director Department of the 
East at New York. 
October 15, 1863 : 

Reports at New York city. 
October 24, 1863 : 

Forwards copy of order relieving him from duty 
in the Department of the South and ordering 
him to report at New York city. [8. O. 558, 
dated Department of the South, Headquarters 
in Field, Folly Island, S. C, loth October, 
1863.] 
October 31, 1863 : 

Reports that he is stationed at New York city 
and assigned to duty as Medical Attendant 
on Volunteer Officers, and Medical Director 
of Transportation. 
November 30, 1863 : 
Same as above. 
December 31, 1863 : 

Same. 
January 31, 1864: 

Reports on duty at New York as Examining Sur- 
geon of Recruits, and Medical Director of 
Transportation. 
February 29, 1864 : 
Same as above. 
March 7, 1864: 

Resignation accepted by the President ; to take 
efEect March 5, 1864. 

105 



RB 



9.3.^ 









.-^ 



^;<^ 



c^ 






.0 






» S\ t?^f //I ^ A^ " \n c,-^ *■ rC\\ fes /A o <> "^ 



<■ ^ ?-. 






p^,' / \ '•'Tf^T-'^* ^^ ■MWy^^^^' \ '^f:^ 







S?J= -, 



,G 



-. .o- ,.^-. -, .^.:^',--. '°\->S- °^ 






■/>?y>u 



'^- 0^- 






."i;^^^: ^0^, 



^^. 



0^ 



^^^x 



b v 

c 



,0 






.f^ 









" a <> . 



.•■^^ ,G 



A 



<'. 






'o V 



x^--V 






^. 



-W^', .1^ 



^. 



^^p^^ 






:mM^^°' '"^^^ ">:^tB§^: "^'^^^ ^^^^M^v)^"; V'^ 



^^IS;^^ .'^^^ lW£W» aV-^ 


































0^ . V . o 



*-., 

^ 



v^ , . . -^ 



.V 






< ?>■ ° " ° ♦ <^Js 



-^0^ 









,v 



\^ 









^/; 









^'. \ ,/ 



l,*o ^^ .<i, 









,j> . « = 



^o 






0^ .^1 ^;4.% 



./f:^^^-/:^^^^^^ : 



,-^ .<^°.:;v ^ 



.^^iXPK, 






.0 



^'''^^. 



FLA. :>;/, V-^;^' "^f^l^- ^"^ "^^^#%t V^;^ ,"k; 



r V 



:,2084 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 763 719 4 .* 



